In this hot article Alexander Kros and colleagues at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry, The Netherlands, investigate the effect of surface-attached PEG on the coiled-coil peptide mediated membrane fusion of liposomes. Fusion is inhibited when the liposomes are pegylated. The team say that fusion can be prevented effectively with less than two mole percent of pegylated lipid. The pegylated lipids inhibit peptide complex formation and liposome docking, preventing liposome fusion at the initial stage of the process.
Read the full article for free until 12th September (free registration required): Itsuro Tomatsu, Hana Robson Marsden, Martin Rabe, Frank Versluis, Tingting Zheng, Harshal Zope and Alexander Kros, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, DOI:10.1039/C1JM11722J, Advance Article
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