Presentation of membrane proteins to host immune systems has been a challenging problem owing to complexity arising from the poor in vivo stability of the membrane‐mimetic media often used for solubilizing the membrane proteins. Prof. Guo's lab and Prof. Chou and Dr. Chen from Harvard Medical School showed the use of functionalized, biocompatible nanoparticles as substrates to guide the formation of proteoliposomes, which can present many copies of membrane proteins in a unidirectional manner. The approach was demonstrated to present the membrane‐proximal region of the HIV‐1 envelope glycoprotein. These nanoparticle‐supported liposomes are broadly applicable as membrane antigen vehicles for inducing host immune responses.
This work has been selected as cover article of Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
W. Chen, Y. Cai, Q. Fu, B. Chen, J. Guo*, J. J. Chou*, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, 58, 9866
