CoVes · Communicating Vesicles

Communicating Vesicles

The process of communication at molecular level is fundamental for the regulation of chemical and biological systems. As example, the survival of cellular entities depends on their capability to send and receive chemical messages between their interior and exterior. Therefore, the possibility to acquire knowledge on communication phenomena using artificial systems leads to understanding and developing complex information processing networks. Inspired by the regulation of chemical signal given by transmembrane receptors, “CoVes” allows to build a system made of synthetic vesicles equipped with a series of receptors able to respond to reversible chemical stimuli, so that the vesicles can react in a specific and targeted way to different molecular signals. The investigation of dynamic covalent reactions in a biocompatible environment together with the development of signalling processes is studied. The optimisation and development of a series of reversible reactions based on thiol addition to a Michael acceptor showed that the vesicles induce a template effect, which can be exploited to selectively form a desired product in the lipid bilayer. The quantitative assessment of this phenomenon provides useful guidelines for the design of molecular components for exploiting and design dynamic reversible covalent systems within lipid bilayers. Moreover, the findings on reactivity of dynamic systems at the membrane interface is used to develop an artificial signalling system. A clear insight is provided on the functioning of a reversible system within a lipid bilayer and how it can be employed in the generation of a chemical signal or in the transport of specific molecules. The implementation and optimisation of these systems took longer than expected and the two years project resulted not sufficient to implement the communication between different vesicles. However, the control gained on reversible process at the lipid bilayer interface furnishes promising initial results to extend and develop the adopted approach.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union