Incorporation of transmembrane protein antigens into phospholipid bilayers supported on silica microbeads using membrane fusion with budded virions of recombinant baculovirus
摘要
For the reconstitution of artificial cell membranes, silica microbeads are often selected as scaffolds to reinforce fragile lipid membranes; these bilayer-covered beads are often called spherical supported lipid bilayer membranes (SS-BLMs). SS-BLMs were made through the adsorption of small unilamellar vesicles (SUVs) preformed from a mixture of phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylserine (PS). Fluorescence microscopic observation showed that budded viruses (BVs) of Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) labeled with octadecyl rhodamine B chloride (R18) could fuse and be optimally distributed homogeneously over the SS-BLMs when using a combination of PC and PS. We also demonstrated that when BVs expressing the recombinant transmembrane protein, G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR), like β2 adrenergic receptor and corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor 1, the protein could be specifically visualized on SS-BLMs by immunofluorescence microscopy. This indicates that recombinant proteins were incorporated into the spherical supported lipid bilayers through virion-lipid bilayer membrane fusion.