Insect cuticle, one of the most complex self-assembly systems in nature, contains hundreds of cuticle proteins, offering endless possibilities for screening insect cuticle protein peptides (ICPs) with self-assembly potential. Recently, Professor Tian Liu from Dalian University of Technology, along with Professor Qing Yang from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Professor Huajian Gao from Tsinghua University, and Associate Professor Jing Yu from Nanyang Technological University, made a breakthrough in the self-assembly mechanism of insect cuticle proteins and their related applications. Their findings were published in Nature Nanotechnology.
The Asian corn borer is a type of crop pest in China, and its burrowing characteristics are one of the main reasons for the difficulty in control. The hard head capsule is the main organ that enables its burrowing function. From the transcriptome of the Asian corn borer head capsule cuticle, the authors identified 233 cuticle proteins and selected 9 ICPs with repetitive sequences. Remarkably, three ICPs (WA30, VV30, and NS36) could spontaneously assemble into nanocapsules in a mixed solvent of water and acetone without the need for any templates.
The study shows that the formation of these peptide-based nanocapsules benefits from the solvent concentration gradient self-assembly technique. When the ICP aqueous solution is mixed with acetone, liquid-liquid phase separation occurs. The ICP nanocapsules can be prepared through a simple solvent displacement process and offer some unique advantages in drug delivery. This theory can partly explain the assembly mechanism of cuticle proteins during the dehydration process of the insect's new cuticle, providing new insights into understanding the formation mechanism of insect cuticles. Additionally, the ICP nanocapsules degrade slowly in the human body, enhancing drug release with lower side effects.
The prepared ICP nanocapsules have great potential in tumor treatment, gene therapy, vaccine delivery, and other applications.
Link to the research paper: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-024-01654-w
