CarriersGPIanchored
CarriersGPIanchored, sometimes written as GPI-anchored carriers, refers to proteins or engineered constructs that are tethered to the exterior surface of cells or vesicles via a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor. This anchorage allows the cargo to be presented while remaining membrane-associated, without spanning the plasma membrane.
GPI anchors are glycolipids that attach to a preprotein via a GPI transamidase in the endoplasmic reticulum,
In biotechnology and research, GPI-anchored carriers are used to display peptides, antigens, or functional domains on
Challenges include susceptibility to cleavage by phospholipases, heterogeneity of GPI anchors, variable expression across cell types,
The concept highlights how post-translational lipidation can be used to engineer membrane-associated delivery systems, complementing transmembrane