Human or mouse SA (Sigma-Aldrich or Bioworld, respectively) was conjugated to the surface of TMV targeting Lys side chains. First, SA was conjugated with NHS-PEG
4-SAT (Thermo Fisher) at 1:1 ratio in phosphate buffered saline (PBS; 0.01 M Na
2HPO
4, 0.0018 M KH
2PO
4, 0.0027 M KCl and 0.137 M NaCl, pH 7.4) containing 10% (v/v) DMSO overnight at RT. To de-protect the thiol group, 0.5 M hydroxylamine, 25 mM EDTA in PBS, pH 7.2–7.5, was added at a final concentration of 10% (v/v) and incubated for 3 h at RT. Separately, TMV was conjugated with maleimide-PEG
4-NHS (Thermo Fisher) at 10 equiv of PEG per coat protein in 10 mM potassium phosphate buffer, pH 7.4, containing 10% (v/v) DMSO, for 3 h at RT. The resulting maleimide-PEG
4-TMV conjugates were purified twice through
PD MiniTrap G-25 desalting columns (GE) and combined with previously prepared SA-PEG
4-SH at 6 equiv per CP and reacted overnight at RT to yield SA-TMV particles. The reaction was quenched by addition of excess glycine and
l-cysteine for 1 h at RT. The resulting constructs were then purified by ultracentrifugation at 112 000
g (50 000 rpm using
TLA-55 rotor, Beckman Coulter) for 1 h on a 40% (w/v) sucrose cushion in PBS. The final samples were resuspended in PBS, pH 7.4, to yield a concentration of 10 mg/mL of SA-TMV; aggregates were removed by centrifugation at 7500
g for 5 min.
Pitek A.S., Hu H., Shukla S, & Steinmetz N.F. (2018). Cancer Theranostic Applications of Albumin-Coated Tobacco Mosaic Virus Nanoparticles. ACS applied materials & interfaces, 10(46), 39468-39477.