Search

The covalent immobilization of xylanase onto the trichlorotriazine-functionalized polyethylene glycol grafted magnetic nanoparticles was exploited to generate a stabilized xylanase with improved catalytic activity and stability. Several tools were deployed to monitor the synthesis and immobilization processes, the loading capacity of nanocarrier, and the structural/chemical characteristics of the nanobiocatalyst. The optimum immobilization yield of xylanase was 260 mg xylanase/g nanocarrier in 20 mM phosphate buffer, pH 6.5 at 25 °C. A forward shift in optimum pH (6.5 to 7.5) and temperature (60 to 70 °C) of xylanase was observed after immobilization and the performance of immobilized enzyme was improved at high temperatures and pHs as affirmed by enhancement of v max (2.69 to 6.01 U/mL) and decreases of E a (14.61 to 13.41 kJ/mol). An increase in K m from 25.51 to 40.42 mg/mL was recorded after immobilization. The obtained results indicated augmented thermal stability of the immobilized xylanase. Notably, it showed good reusability as validated by retention of 50% of its initial activity after nine recycles in enrichment of the pineapple juice clarification after 120 min incubation at 50 °C, pH 4.5. The structural analysis revealed some partial changes in the α-helix and β-sheet content of the enzyme after several recycles., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Enzyme immobilized on magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) can be used as efficient recoverable biocatalysts under strong magnetic responses. In the present work, α-amylase was immobilized onto naringin functionalized MNPs via ionic interactions. For this purpose, the MNPs were functionalized with naringin, as a biocompatible flavonoid. The morphology, structure, and properties of functionalized MNPs and the immobilization of α-amylase on synthesized nanocomposite were characterized through different analytical tools including TGA, VSM, FTIR, SEM-EDX and TEM. Furthermore, the optimum conditions of temperature, pH, reaction time and enzyme concentration for immobilization process were investigated. The results showed that the optimal conditions for immobilization of α-amylase onto synthesized nanocarrier occurred at pH6.5 and 55°C. The reusability experiments revealed high activity maintenance of immobilized α-amylase even after 10 reaction cycles. Moreover, the storage stability of immobilized enzyme improved via immobilization in comparison with free one and it maintained 60% of its initial activity after 6weeks storage at 4°C. The improvements in enzyme catalytic properties via immobilization made this nanobiocatalyst as a good candidate in bio-industrial applications. Furthermore, the synthesized nanocomposite would have the potential for practical applications in other and binary enzyme immobilization., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Nowadays health benefits of bioactive food constituents, known as probiotic microorganisms, are a growing awareness. Cow's milk is a nutritious food containing probiotic bacteria. However, milk allergenicity is one of the most common food allergies. The milk protein, β-lactoglobulin (BLG), is in about 80% of all main cases of milk allergies for children and infants. With the aim of screening proteolytic strains of lactic acid bacteria to evaluate their potential for the reduction of allergenicity of the major bovine milk proteins, we isolated new proteolytic strains of cocci lactic acid bacteria from traditional Iranian dairy products. The proteases produced by these strains had strong proteolytic activity against BLG. Proteolysis of BLG, observed after sodium dodecyl sulfate-PAGE, was confirmed by the analysis of the peptide profiles by reversed-phase HPLC. The two isolates were submitted to 16S rDNA sequencing and identified as Lactcoccus lactis subsp. cremoris and Lactcoccus lactis subsp. hordniea. The competitive ELISA experiments confirmed that these isolates, with high proteolytic activity, reduce significantly the allergenicity of BLG. Accordingly, these isolates can reduce the immunoreactivity of bovine milk proteins, which can be helpful for the production of low-allergic dairy products., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The interaction between apo-human serum transferrin (Apo-hTf) and alprazolam was investigated using various spectroscopic techniques. The drug quenched the fluorescence intensity of Apo-hTf and the mechanism behind the quenching was static. The thermodynamic parameters (ΔG, ΔH, and ΔS) that obtained from tryptophan fluorescence study revealed that the interactions between alprazolam and Apo-hTf were spontaneous. Collectively, hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonding most likely played major roles in Apo-hTf/alprazolam interactions. Also, the absorption spectra of Apo-hTf increased in the presence of increasing concentration of alprazolam, reflecting Apo-hTf structural alteration after drug's binding. The CD results demonstrated that the Apo-hTf/alprazolam interaction does not affect the protein secondary and tertiary structure significantly until the molar ratios (alprazolam/Apo-hTf) of 10, but the conformational changes become visible at higher molar ratios. The DSC results suggested that alprazolam stabilized the Apo-hTf at alprazolam/Apo-hTf molar ratio of 20. Based on the achieved results, this potentially therapeutic agent can significantly bind to Apo-hTf which also further confirmed by molecular docking study. This study on the interaction of the drug with Apo-hTf should be helpful for understanding the transportation and distribution of drugs in vivo, as well as the action mechanism and dynamics of a drug at the molecular level., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In order to utilize the advantages of immobilization such as improvement of stability, increasing the catalytic activity, ability to recovery and reuse of enzyme from reaction medium, xylanase enzyme was immobilized on superparamagnetic garphene oxide nanosheets (GOMNP). Xylanase, as a hydrolytic enzyme of xylan has widely used in industry. Since the xylan is bulk, for enhance accessibility of active sites of the immobilized xylanase, polyethylene glycol bis amine (PEGA) was used as a spacer for functionalization of GOMNP. The modified GOMNP and immobilized xylanase on PEGA-GOMNP (PEGA-GOMNP/Xy) were characterized through different analysis tools. The results showed that xylanase was attached to the functionalized nanocomposite with a yield of 273mg enzyme per gram PEGA-GOMNP. Thermal stability, pH stability, reusability and storage stability were determined for immobilized enzyme. The free and immobilized xylanase displayed an optimal enzymatic activity at 60°C and pH 6.5 and 7.5, respectively. The immobilized enzyme retained about 40% of the initial activity after 8 cycles with xylan substrate at 60°C. Also immobilized and free enzymes retained 35% and 20% of the initial catalytic activity after 90days storage at 4°C, respectively. Consequently, PEGA- modified GOMNP can be introduced as a biodegradable and suitable support for bioengineering., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Immobilization of an enzyme can enhance its catalytic activity, depending on the properties of the enzyme and the matrix. Graphene oxide is a nontoxic material and selective modulator for enzyme activity and is also a thermostable molecule that is important in large-scale nanostructure sheet applications. Herein, we have successfully developed a strategy for preparing a nanocomposite for enzyme immobilization model with high loading capacity. Nanostructures of hybrid graphene oxide-Fe 3 O 4 -cyanuric chloride (GO/MNP-CC) have adjustable surface chemistry that is an excellent candidate for covalent immobilization of enzymes. The morphology, structure and properties of GO/MNP-CC nanocomposite were investigated through different analytical tools. Glucoamylase, an important enzyme in industrial food products, was immobilized on GO/MNP-CC and exhibited excellent catalytic activity at pH 6.5 and 60°C. The results of this study indicated that the catalytic activity, reusability and stability of immobilized enzyme have been obviously improved compared to the free enzyme. The apparent K m and ν max for free and immobilized glucoamylase were also determined. These properties make them a good candidate to improve the practicality and further the development of the capacity enzyme attachment. Thus, the synthesized matrix has the potential for practical applications in other and binary enzyme immobilization and would have a wide prospect for their applications in bio-industry and biosensing., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

β-Lactoglobulin (β-LG) is a member of lipocalin superfamily of transporters for small hydrophobic molecules. β-LG is also one of the major allergens in milk. Despite a lot of researches on decreasing of cow's milk allergenicity, the effects of the mutation of β-LG on its recognition by IgE from cow's milk allergy (CMA) patients have not been investigated. We described here the expression in the yeast Pichia pastoris of a mutant β-LG, in which Alanine 86 was changed into Glutamine (Ala86Gln; a mutation on one of the major epitopes of the protein). The purity and native like folded structure of the recombinant Ala86Gln have been demonstrated using circular dichroism, HPLC, SDS-PAGE and mass spectrometry. The effect of the mutation on the binding of IgE from CMA patients to mutant protein was evaluated by ELISA methods and the results showed that the mutation of Ala-86 was associated with weaker binding of IgE from CMA patients to Ala86Gln mutant protein. Subsequently, the binding of various ligands such as retinol, palmitic acid, resveratrol and serotonin, with native, recombinant wild type and Ala86Gln mutant β-LGs were investigated by fluorescence spectroscopy and an improvement on the binding affinity of the mutated protein to various ligands was observed., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Bovine milk β-lactoglobulin (β-LG) demonstrates significant resistance against both gastric- and simulated duodenal digestions. Therefore, it seems a realistic protein candidate for safe delivery and protection of particularly pH sensitive drugs in stomach. Recently, pyrimidine fused heterocycles (PFHs) revealed inhibitory properties against α-glucosidase (α-Gls) which is an important target enzyme for those drugs playing significant role in treatment of type-II diabetes and HIV/AIDS infection. The delivery of these compounds to small intestine where the enzyme plays its biological function is of great importance. Therefore, in this work the interaction of PFH compounds with β-LG, as a carrier protein has been investigated. Fluorescence, circular dichroism (CD) and UV-vis spectroscopic studies were used to examine the binding parameters and binding modes of the interaction. Moreover, the effects of PFH complexation on the secondary structures of β-LG were studied. All of these compounds significantly quenched the fluorescence intensity of β-LG due to a ground state complex formation. The binding and thermodynamic parameters were calculated. While hydrophobic interactions were proved to play significant role in the interaction of L1, L2 and L3, hydrogen bonding was shown to be important in the complexation of L4. The secondary structures of β-LG were preserved upon interaction of these synthetic compounds. Based on the achieved results, these potentially therapeutic agents can significantly bind to β-LG. Consequently, this protein might be useful for delivery of PFH compounds to small intestine where representing their potential ability to inhibit α-Gls and to reduce the postprandial hyperglycemia in diabetic patients., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Bovine beta-lactoglobulin (beta-LG) present in milks has been found "in vivo" in complexes with lipids such as butyric and oleic acids. To elucidate the still unknown structure-function relationship in this protein, the structural changes of beta-lactoglobulin variant A (beta-LG A) in the presence of cationic surfactant such as dodecyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (DTAB) have been investigated using various experimental techniques such as UV-vis spectrophotometry, fluorimetry, isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and circular dichroism (CD). Subsequently, the retinol binding by beta-LG has been investigated in the presence of various amounts of this surfactant as its extrinsic functional binding fluorophore. Comparison of the results allowed to determine the binding of retinol by beta-LG in the presence of DTAB. The results of UV-vis and fluorescence studies showed a red shift in wavelength and an increase in absorbance and enhancement in the intensity of the quantum yield of protein during its interaction with DTAB. The results of UV-vis also showed two distinct conformational changes corresponding first to precipitation and second to solubilization of the precipitated beta-LG at pH 6.7 and 8.0. The results indicate the cooperative character of binding at pH 2.0. The results of fluorescence studies showed that the binding strength of beta-LG/DTAB complex increases with the increase of the pH. CD results showed the shifts in positions of the major minima and change in magnitude of ellipticity and subsequently signified two significant changes in structure of beta-LG between 10-30 and 50-100 molar ratio of [DTAB]/[beta-LG]. ITC measurements indicated the endothermic nature of beta-LG/DTAB interactions at pH 6.7 and the exothermic nature of beta-LG/DTAB interactions at pH 8.0. The analysis of the binding data demonstrates the absence of significant changes in retinol-binding properties of beta-LG in the presence of various amounts of this surfactant. This implies that surfactant binding does not change the conformation of beta-LG in the regions defining retinol-binding site nor interferes with retinol binding by a competition for the same binding site(s).

The interaction of cationic surfactants, n-alkyl trimethyl ammonium bromides (CnTAB, n = 12 and 14), with cellulase from Aspergillus niger has been investigated at 25 degrees C and various pH, using CnTAB-membrane selective electrodes as a simple, fast, cheap and accurate technique and fluorescence spectroscopy. The regions of C1 (the surfactant concentration at which binding is initiated) and C2 (enzyme saturated by surfactant) were determined using potentiometric measurements. The obtained binding isotherms have been analyzed using Scatchard plot and binding capacity concept. The results were interpreted on the basis of nature of forces which interfered in the interaction and represent two binding sets system for all of the studied conditions. Hill equation parameters have been estimated and used for calculation of intrinsic Gibbs free energy that decreases with extension of binding. The effect of CnTAB binding on cellulase intrinsic fluorescence spectra was also examined. A biphasic behavior was observed for quenching process of endoglucanase by CnTAB that confirms the results of binding studies correspond to the existence of two types of binding sites for CnTAB on cellulase.

The heat capacity changes for interaction of human serum albumin (HSA) and a cationic surfactant-cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), were studied at conditions close to physiological (50mM HEPES or phosphate buffer, pH 7.4 and 160mM NaCl) carrying out isothermal calorimetric titrations (ITC) at various temperatures (20-40 degrees C). ITC measurements indicated that the small endothermic changes associated with CPC demicellization were temperature independent at these conditions. Surprisingly, important enthalpy changes associated with binding of CPC to HSA were exothermic and temperature independent at lower concentrations (below 0.022mM) of CPC and endothermic and temperature dependent at higher concentrations of CPC. The values of heat capacity changes were obtained for each studied concentration of CPC from the plot of enthalpy changes vs temperature. The obtained results demonstrate the temperature independence of heat capacity changes at entire range of studied CPC concentrations. Both enthalpograms and heat capacity curves indicate the two-step mechanism of HSA folding changes due to its interactions with CPC. The first step corresponds to transition from native state to partially unfolded state and the second to unfolding and to the loss of tertiary structure. The analysis of the results indicates that predominant cooperative unfolding occurs at CPC/HSA molar ratio region between 25 and 30. Such information could not be extracted from thermograms and describes the role of heat capacity as a major thermodynamic quantity giving insight on physical, mechanistic and even atomic-level into how HSA may unfold and interact with CPC. The effect of CPC binding on HSA intrinsic fluorescence, UV-Vis and CD spectra were also examined. Hence, the analysis of spectral data confirms the ITC results about the biphasic mechanism of HSA folding changes induced by CPC. The CD measurement also represents the conservation of considerable secondary structure of HSA due to interaction with CPC.

Human serum albumin (HSA) is frequently used in biophysical and biochemical studies since it has a well-known primary structure and it has been associated with the binding of many different categories of small molecules. In the present study, results are presented for the binding of cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) with HSA at various pH and 25 degrees C, as monitored using ion selective membrane electrodes and fluorescence spectroscopy of intrinsic tryptophan. The obtained binding isotherms were analyzed on basis of binding capacity concept and Hill plot in order to determine the Hill parameters of binding sets. The system behaved as a system with two sets of binding sites in all studied situations. The results represent a positive cooperative behavior and the essential role of hydrophobic interactions in both binding sets. The intrinsic binding affinity of second binding set have a similar values and trends at acidic and neutral pHs, that represents the similar unfolded structure at these pHs. CPC quenched the fluorescence arising from Trp group incorporated to HSA. A biphasic behavior was observed in quenching process that confirmed the results of binding study correspond to the existence of two binding sets. The similarity of unfolded structure in acidic and neutral pH was also confirmed by fluorescence study. The quenching of HSA fluorescence takes place with a Stern-Volmer constant of 0.643 x 10(4), 1.23 x 10(4) and 7.40 x 10(4) at pH 3.5, 6.8 and 9.5, respectively. The Stern-Volmer behavior observed at low molar ratio of [CPC]/[HSA] (about 6), that represents the occurrence of conformational changes after this molar ratio. Comparing, the K(SV) values and binding parameters indicate that the binding is dominated by hydrophobic effects and, in minor degree, by electrostatic interactions.