Mempro™ Virus-like Particles (VLPs) in Lipoparticle Technology

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Based on our unparalleled Mempro™ VLPs Platform and Mempro™ Membrane Protein Platform, Creative Biostructure has developed a novel lipoparticle technology platform for membrane proteins study, and we can produce stable VLPs with high-quality and high-yield which contain a broad range of integral membrane proteins in lipoparticles formation.

Integral Membrane proteins play an essential role in a variety of biological functions, and almost 50% of therapeutic drugs are targeted at them. Due to the highly hydrophobic transmembrane domains of transmembrane proteins, their studies have encountered several challenges outside of living cells.

Creative Biostructure can capture intact membrane proteins in their native conformation from the cell surface directly, which enable us to manipulate these protein complex as soluble proteins. Lipoparticles can carry an interested integral membrane protein in high concentration including G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), viral envelopes and ion channels to be applied as biochemical tools.

As a convenient and consistent source, lipoparticle technology is able to maintain membrane proteins in the native environment. Thanks to the small size and purity of lipoparticles (~150 nm), they can widely used as biosensors, microarrays, microfluidics, and beads. Lipid ordered (Lo) domains of the plasma membrane, as known as lipid rafts, often play a vital role as a natural target for viral proteins during the assembly of enveloped viruses. The role of lipid rafts is extensively recognized in the organization of complex combinations of immune receptors during antigen presentation and T cell signaling. Our lipoparticle technology can be used in various applications such as immunogen production, antibody phage/yeast panning, antibody screening, immunization, and ligand binding assays, etc. For example, we have applied a carrier protein HBsAg (hepatitis B surface antigen), which is capable of spontaneous assembly into virus-like particles, to fuse the gp120 in order to increase the immunogenicity of HIV-1 envelope glycoproteins. The hybrid HBsAg-gp120 complex can be assembled into 20-30 nm particles efficiently.

Based on our advanced lipoparticle technology, we can produce a variety of highly customized lipoparticles with specified membrane proteins. Each lipoparticle batch can be assessed to ensure the purity, homogeneity, and integrity. A series of selected receptors and sample kits are also available for preliminary application testing.

Besides custom lipoparticle service, Creative Biostructure also offers Mempro™ Virus-like Particles (VLPs) services in various application fields such as vaccines, cell targeting, delivery systems, and bioimaging, etc. Please feel free to contact us for a detailed quote.

References:
J. O. Josefsberg, et al. (2012). Vaccine Process Technology. Biotechnol. Bioeng.,109: 1443–1460.
S. Willis, et al. (2008). Virus-like Particles as Quantitative Probes of Membrane Protein Interactions. Biochemistry,47(27): 6988–6990.

J. W. Jones, et al. (2008). Cell-Free Assay of G-Protein-Coupled Receptors Using Fluorescence Polarization. Journal of Biomolecular Screening, 13(5): 424-429.