The nanodisc system has been employed to incorporate a wide variety of proteins including GPCRs, P450s, bacteriorhodopsin, coagulation factors, cholera toxin, TAR receptor and aromatase.
Nanodiscs are non-covalent structures that contain a phospholipid bilayer and a membrane scaffold protein (MSP), a genetically engineered protein, which mimics the function of Apolipoprotein A-1 (ApoA-1). The first MSP, MSP1, was engineered with its sequence based on the sequence of A-1, but without the globular N-terminal domain of native A-1. The Membrane Scaffold Protein 1D1 (MSP1D1) variant of MSP1 deletes the first 11 amino acids in the Helix 1 portion (referred to as “H0.5” in the accompanying figure) of the original MSP1 sequence.
Membrane scaffold protein 1D1 (MSP1D1) is derived from apolipoprotein A-I. It is an amphipathic synthetic protein, which self assembles to form nanodiscs.
