Qingqing Fang, Pan Guo, Yiting Zeng, Chenru Wang, Tao Jiang and Yunbao Jiang
Chem. Commun., 2022,58, 9802-9805
DOI:
10.1039/D2CC03296A,
Communication
Novel cell-targeting ligand structures are constructed with a spikey core scaffold, where multiple copies of coiled-coil peptide nanorods are conjugated on the surface of a peptide nanosheet. Clustering of carbohydrate and aptamer ligands at the end of the coiled coils optimizes ligand accessibility to cell-surface receptors. Display of the ligand-coil conjugates on the nanosheet generates a patchy ligand pattern bearing two levels of multivalency. With the ligand-scaffold system, high-avidity cell targeting is realized using fewer ligands than ever, which facilitates future applications in cell detection and drug delivery.