Helical antimicrobial peptides assemble into protofibril scaffolds that present ordered dsDNA to TLR9

Ernest Y. Lee; Changsheng Zhang; Jeremy Di Domizio; Fan Jin; Will Connell; Mandy Hung; Nicolas Malkoff; Veronica Veksler; Michel Gilliet; Pengyu Ren; Gerard C. L. Wong

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-08868-w

Nature Communications (Mar 2019)

Helical antimicrobial peptides assemble into protofibril scaffolds that present ordered dsDNA to TLR9

Ernest Y. Lee,
Changsheng Zhang,
Jeremy Di Domizio,
Fan Jin,
Will Connell,
Mandy Hung,
Nicolas Malkoff,
Veronica Veksler,
Michel Gilliet,
Pengyu Ren,
Gerard C. L. Wong

Affiliations

Ernest Y. Lee: Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles
Changsheng Zhang: Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin
Jeremy Di Domizio: Department of Dermatology, Lausanne University Hospital CHUV
Fan Jin: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China
Will Connell: Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles
Mandy Hung: Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles
Nicolas Malkoff: Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles
Veronica Veksler: Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles
Michel Gilliet: Department of Dermatology, Lausanne University Hospital CHUV
Pengyu Ren: Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin
Gerard C. L. Wong: Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-08868-w
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 10, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Amphihelical antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are bactericidal host defense factors, but their function as immunomodulators is emerging. Here the authors show that several AMPs organize DNA into periodic nanocrystals by self-assembling into superhelical protofibril scaffolds, which potentiates DNA sensing by TLR9.

Published in Nature Communications

ISSN: 2041-1723 (Online)
Publisher: Nature Portfolio
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Science
Website: https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

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