PLL-modified mxene nanosheets with control over the receptor density as multivalent antiviral drugs
Daniel Tambuwun (TNW-MNF), Manuel Pettenati (TNW-MNF), Chaofan Chen (Department of Radiation Science and Technology, Faculty of Applied Sciences, TU Delft), Xuehang Wang (Department of Radiation Science and Technology, TU Delft), Jurriaan Huskens (TNW-MNF)
Abstract
With the possible emergence of drug-resistant variants, the efficacy of current medications, based on small molecules, to treat influenza may be lowered and become ineffective. In this approach, the virus infectivity is inhibited by wrapping the virus particles with receptor-functionalized nanosheet “straitjackets” through multivalent interactions against the envelope proteins hemagglutinin (HA) or neuraminidase (NA). We design a bottom-up fabrication of MXene nanosheets modified with poly-L-lysine (PLL) as the 2D platform to immobilize the receptors. The binding preference of virus particles towards the jacket is tuned by having higher density or higher affinity receptors on the jacket. Surface density of the receptor on the nanosheet is determined by the amount of adsorbed PLL as well as the effective amount of click-reactive group ligated with Cy5-azide as our model receptor. Our approach paves a way to fabricate multivalent antiviral drugs decorated with receptors with the ability to control and to quantify the receptor density.