Biomolecular Self-assembling Systems for Multivalent Ligand Display

Assemblies of multivalent ligands with regular arrangement such as natural glycolipid clusters play important roles in biological molecular recognition. Programmed self-assemblies of DNAs, peptides, and proteins were recently developed as technology to construct artificial nanoassemblies. Molecular systems that display regularly multivalent ligands have been constructed by introducing ligands into the biomolecular nanoassemblies. One-dimensional display of sugars with regular intervals has been achieved by hybridization of glycosylated oligo-DNA with the half-sliding complementary DNA. Three dimensional ligand display by DNA self-assembly has also been possible. On the other hand, ligand display systems on peptide assemblies and viral capsids have also been developed. Virus-like nanocapsules were also constructed by self-assembly of peptides. The present strategies for ligand display can be applied to various biorecognizable materials and drug delivery materials in future.