Engineering of anti-cancer g-quadruplex nucleic acids and anti-bacterial protein fibers

Abstract

Functional synthetic biopolymers are widely used in the therapeutic treatment and medical devices. This thesis consists of two parts focusing on nucleic acids and proteins respectively. In the first project, structural conformation and bioactivity of G-quadruplex-forming sequences, derived from a well-known aptamer AGRO100, was explored. Our findings on the novel G-quadruplex structures and their anti-proliferative activity against cancer cells might contribute in the development of oligonucleotides for therapeutic treatment. In the second project, a recombinant protein derived from elastin was synthesized and induced to self-assemble and form a fiber platform for silver nanoparticles formation. The silver-coated protein fibers exhibited the anti-bacterial properties on E. coli and S. aureus. This synthetic protein offers a novel biomaterial for an anti-bacterial coating in medical devices.