Highly Amino Acid Selective Hydrolysis of Myoglobin at Aspartate Residues as Promoted by Zirconium(IV)‐Substituted Polyoxometalates

SDS‐PAGE/Edman degradation and HPLC MS/MS showed that zirconium(IV)‐substituted Lindqvist‐, Keggin‐, and Wells–Dawson‐type polyoxometalates (POMs) selectively hydrolyze the protein myoglobin at Asp? X peptide bonds under mildly acidic and neutral conditions. This transformation is the first example of highly sequence selective protein hydrolysis by POMs, a novel class of protein‐hydrolyzing agents. The selectivity is directed by Asp residues located on the surface of the protein and is further assisted by electrostatic interactions between the negatively charged POMs and positively charged surface patches in the vicinity of the cleavage site.     

多酸在电催化析氢反应中的应用研究进展

电催化水裂解是一种可持续用于生产可再生氢能源的技术。然而,开发高效稳定、低成本的析氢电催化剂仍是一项具有挑战性的任务。多金属氧酸盐(多酸)是一种离散的金属氧簇合物,通常由氧配体和高价的钒(V)、钼(VI)、钨(VI)金属构成。由于多酸含有丰富的氧化还原活性金属中心,因此,近几年来,多酸在水裂解应用研究方面备受关注。本综述将聚焦于多酸在电催化水裂解析氢的应用研究进展。本文还突出强调了电催化析氢目前面临的主要问题,以及对多酸基催化剂及作为催化剂前体在电催化析氢方面的应用及发展前景做了展望。     

A Water‐Soluble Conjugated Polymer for Protein Identification and Denaturation Detection

Rapid and sensitive methods to detect proteins and protein denaturation have become increasingly needful in the field of proteomics, medical diagnostics, and biology. In this paper, we have reported the synthesis of a new cationic water‐soluble conjugated polymer that contains fluorene and diene moieties in the backbone ( PFDE ) for protein identification by sensing an array of PFDE solutions in different ionic strengths using the linear discriminant analysis technique (LDA). The PFDE can form complexes with proteins by electrostatic and/or hydrophobic interactions and exhibits different fluorescence response. Three main factors contribute to the fluorescence response of PFDE , namely, the net charge density on the protein surface, the hydrophobic nature of the protein, and the metalloprotein characteristics. The denaturation of proteins can also be detected using PFDE as a fluorescent probe. The interactions between PFDE and proteins were also studied by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and isothermal titration microcalorimetry (ITC) techniques. In contrast to other methods based on conjugated polymers, the synthesis of a series of quencher or dye‐labeled acceptors or protein substrates has been avoided in our method, which significantly reduces the cost and the synthetic complexity. Our method provides promising applications on protein identification and denaturation detection in a simple, fast, and label‐free manner based on non‐specific interaction‐induced perturbation of PFDE fluorescence response.     

Polyoxometalates based compounds for green synthesis of aldehydes and ketones

Molecular oxygen within Polyoxometalates(POMs) based compounds are ideal oxidants with high atom economy and its use results in the production of water as the only byproduct. Significant progress has been made in the development of catalytic methods for aerobic alcohol oxidation to have aldehydes and ketones with POMs based compounds. They are alternative to the use of traditional hypervalent iodine catalyst systems which are with molecular oxygen as a terminal oxidant. Further, POMs based catal...     

Polyoxometalate-Based Nanomaterials Toward Efficient Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy

As an emerging class of inorganic metal oxides, organically functionalized polyoxometalates (POMs) or POM-based nanohybrids have been demonstrated promising potential for the inhibition of various cancer types by the virtue of their diversity in structures and significantly reduced toxicity. This contribution summarizes the latest achievement of POM-based nanomaterials in cancer diagnosis and various therapeutics to put forward our fundamental viewpoints on the design principles of modified POMs based on their application. In addition, major challenges and perspectives in this field are also discussed. We expect that this review will provide a valuable and systematic reference for the further development of POM-based nanomaterials.     

Polyoxometalates as Potential Next‐Generation Metallodrugs in the Combat Against Cancer

Polyoxometalates (POMs) are an emerging class of inorganic metal oxides, which over the last decades demonstrated promising biological activities by the virtue of their great diversity in structures and properties. They possess high potential for the inhibition of various tumor types; however, their unspecific interactions with biomolecules and toxicity impede their clinical usage. The current focus of the field of biologically active POMs lies on organically functionalized and POM‐based nanocomposite structures as these hybrids show enhanced anticancer activity and significantly reduced toxicity towards normal cells in comparison to unmodified POMs. Although the antitumor activity of POMs is well documented, their mechanisms of action are still not well understood. In this Review, an overview is given of the cytotoxic effects of POMs with a special focus on POM‐based hybrid and nanocomposite structures. Furthermore, we aim to provide proposed mode of actions and to identify molecular targets. POMs are expected to develop into the next generation of anticancer drugs that selectively target cancer cells while sparing healthy cells.     

六钼酸盐有机胺杂化衍生物与SARS-CoV 3CLpro相互作用的分子动力学模拟

采用分子动力学模拟方法, 在分子水平上探讨六钼酸盐有机杂化衍生物潜在的抗SARS病毒活性. 3CLpro主蛋白酶是冠状病毒复制和转录过程中起关键作用的功能蛋白, 因此采用SARS-CoV 3CLpro作为靶标进行抗SARS病毒的药物设计. 使用Insight II软件包中的Biopolymer, Discover 3, Profile-3D和Affinity等模块, 研究 POMs/3CLpro相互作用的结合位点和作用性质. 研究其能量变化规律, 探讨了多酸化合物对SARS病毒可能的抑制机理. 研究结果表明, POMs与3CLpro在酶的催化活性位点处有较强的结合力. 形成的复合物主要以静电相互作用相结合, 氢键相互作用对复合物的相对稳定性有一定影响. 对于POMs/3CLpro复合物, 有机胺基团取代的POMs所带负电荷比未取代体系的高, 比3CLpro的结合能更高, 这与POMs的相关量子化学计算结果吻合.     

Lindqvist型多酸亚胺衍生物的理论研究及设计

多金属氧酸盐的修饰化学是近年发展起来的一个热点研究领域,其中多酸的亚胺化是一种非常有效的使多酸有机官能化的方法.有机胺能够将其π电子扩展到无机框架,产生较强的d-π相互作用,从而多金属氧酸盐有机胺衍生物和远程有机官能团可以作为构筑单元构建更为复杂的多金属氧酸盐-有机杂化材料.本文综述了作者研究小组运用密度泛函理论方法研究系列Lindqvist型多酸亚胺衍生物的稳定性、成键特征和非线性光学性质,深入探讨该类有机-无机杂化衍生物非线性光学性质的起源.     

Solution stability and variability in a simple model of globular proteins

It is well known among molecular biologists that proteins with a common ancestor and that perform the same function in similar organisms, can have rather different amino-acid sequences. Mutations have altered the amino-acid sequences without affecting the function. A simple model of a protein in which the interactions are encoded by sequences of bits is introduced, and used to study how mutations can change these bits, and hence the interactions, while maintaining the stability of the protein solution. This stability is a simple minimal requirement on our model proteins which mimics part of the requirement on a real protein to be functional. The properties of our model protein, such as its second virial coefficient, are found to vary significantly from one model protein to another. It is suggested that this may also be the case for real proteins in vivo.     

Use of Lanthanide‐Containing Polyoxometalates to Sensitise the Emission of Fluorescent Labelled Serum Albumin

Monitoring the interaction of biomolecules is important, and the use of energy transfer is a principal technique in elucidating nanoscale interactions. Lanthanide compounds are promising luminescent probes for biological samples as their emission is longer‐lived than any native autofluorescence. Polyoxometalates (POMs) are interesting structural motifs to incorporate lanthanides, offering low toxicity and a size pertinent for biological applications. Here, we employ iso‐structured POMs containing either terbium or europium and assess their interaction with serum albumin by sensitisation of a fluorescent tag on the protein via LRET (luminescence resonance energy transfer) by exciting the lanthanide. Time‐resolved measurements showed energy transfer with an efficiency of over 90 % for the POM–protein systems. The Tb–POM results were relatively straightforward, while those with the iso‐structured Eu–POM were complicated by the effect of protein shielding from the aqueous environment.     

Some studies of the chromatographic properties of gels (‘Artificial antibodies/receptors’) for selective adsorption of proteins

Summary Although conventional imprinting involving the use of charged functional monomers has been used by many authors for selective adsorption of small molecules, it has not been very successful with high-molecular-weight substances, for example proteins (“...macromolecules, such as proteins are difficult to apply as templates...”; H. S. Andersson, Doctoral Thesis, Trycki H?gskolan Kalmar, 1999, p. 8.). Four years ago we therefore introduced an alternative method based on the polymerization ofnon-charged monomers (acrylamide andN,N′-methylenebisacrylamide) in the presence of the protein of interest. The selectivity of the gels for proteins was high (for instance, myoglobin from horse was adsorbed by a column designed to be selective for this protein, whereas, myoglobin from whale was not adsorbed) and they can therefore be regarded as ‘artificial antibodies’ (or ‘artificial receptors’). This paper deals with improvements of the chromatographic properties of these gels. For example, by modifying the polymerization conditions the protein (hemoglobin) capacity, as well as the flow rate were increased fouifold. This was achieved by entrapment of the selective soft polyacrylamide gel in the pores of a rigid inert gel by letting the monomers and the protein diffuse into the pores of agarose beads (Sepharose^TM) before starting the polymerization. The gel formed was cut into pieces. The agarose beads were freed from the surrounding polyacrylamide gel by stirring. This technique is universal and is recommended also for molecular imprinting studies of small molecules. Another universal method has been introduced for rapid screening of potential monomers and gels for the preparation of selective adsorbents. This very simple method is based on the assumption that the absorption maximum of a protein changes when the protein interacts with the free monomers or the adsorbent synthesized from the monomers (and does not change when the protein does not interact). Preliminary docking experiments indicate that selective adsorption of the protein by the polyacrylamide matrix is based primarily on hydrogen-bonding and dipole-dipole interactions. The strengths of these interactions can be varied by choosing different gel matrices (for removal of a given protein the interactions should be very strong, whereas they should be weaker for chromatographic analysis).     

纳米材料-蛋白质界面相互作用的分子机制

纳米材料由于其优异的性能在化工、电子、机械、环境、能源、航天等各个领域已经得到了广泛的应用,并且在生物医学方面的应用越来越受到重视。纳米材料-蛋白质界面相互作用是纳米生物医学领域重要的科学问题,对于纳米材料的生物医学应用以及生物安全性评价至关重要。蛋白质分子与纳米材料在界面的相互作用,一方面可以诱导蛋白质的构象、组装结构甚至功能的改变,另一方面可以引起纳米材料的表面亲疏水性、电荷性质等表面物理化学性质的改变。基于蛋白质与纳米材料相互作用检测技术及结果,本文从分子水平阐述了纳米材料与蛋白质分子在界面之间的相互作用机理及相应的结构与性质的变化,从而可以深化对两者之间复杂的相互作用机制的理解,对于推进纳米材料在生物医学的应用及健康、安全、持续发展具有重要意义。     

Nonionic side chains modulate the affinity and specificity of binding between functionalized polyamines and structured RNA

This Communication introduces side-chain-bearing polyamines as molecules for selective recognition of folded RNA structures. The complex folded structures associated with RNA create binding pockets for proteins, and also binding sites for small molecules. Developing organic molecules that can bind RNA with high affinity and specificity is a challenge that must be overcome for RNA to be considered a viable drug target. In this work, six polyamines with different side chains were synthesized to test for effects on binding affinity and specificity to TAR RNA and RRE RNA of HIV. Binding interactions between polyamines and RNAs were examined using two footprinting assays, based on terbium-induced cleavage and magnesium-catalyzed cleavage at higher pH. The binding constants and the binding specificity were highly dependent on the side chains of the polyamines, demonstrating that this class of molecules is a very promising starting point for development of highly selective RNA-binding ligands.     

Protein separation using a novel silica-based RPLC/IEC stationary phase modified with N-methylimidazolium ionic liquid

Ionic liquids (ILs) immobilized on silica as novel high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) stationary phases have attracted considerable attention. However, it has not been applied to protein separation. In this paper, N-methylimidazolium IL-modified silica-based stationary phase (SilprMim) was prepared and investigated as a novel multi-interaction stationary phase charged positively for protein separation. The results indicate that all of the basic proteins tested cannot be absorbed on this novel stationary phase, whereas all of the acidic proteins tested can be retained, and the baseline separation of eight kinds of acidic protein standards can be achieved when performed in reversed phase/ ion-exchange chromatography (RPLC/IEC) mode. Compared with commonly used commercial octadecylated silica (ODS) column, the novel stationary phase can show selectivity and good resolution to acidic proteins, which has a promising application in the separation and analyses of acidic proteins from the complex samples in proteomics. In addition, the chromatographic behavior of proteins, the effect of the ligand structure and the retention mechanism on this stationary phase were also investigated.     

Structure and function of proteins in hydrated choline dihydrogen phosphate ionic liquid

Ionic liquids are being intensely studied as promising media for the stabilization of proteins and other biomolecules. Choline dihydrogen phosphate (CDHP) has been identified as one of the most promising candidates for this application. In this work we have probed in more detail the effects that CDHP may have on the thermodynamics, structure, and stability of proteins, including one of therapeutic interest. Microcalorimetry and circular dichroism spectropolarimetry (CD) were used to assess the thermal stability of protein solutions in CDHP/water mixtures at various concentrations. Increasing thermal stability of lysozyme and interleukin-2 in proportion to CDHP concentration was observed. Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) was used to quantify binding interactions, and indicate that the mechanism for stability does not appear to be dependent upon CDHP binding to protein. CD and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) analyses were used to probe for structural changes due to the presence of CDHP. SAXS indicates charge effects on the surface of the protein play a role in protein stability in ionic liquids, and no significant alteration of the overall tertiary conformation of lysozyme was observed at 25 °C. However, after incubation at 37 °C or at higher concentrations of CDHP, small changes in protein structure were seen. Effects on protein activity were monitored using turbidity assays, and CDHP decreases protein activity but does not eliminate it. Protein solubility was also monitored using a turbidity assay and was found to be inversely proportional to the concentration of CDHP in solution.     

High affinity capture surface for matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation compatible protein microarrays

A surface for the capture of biotin-tagged proteins on matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation (MALDI) targets has been investigated. Binding of a poly-L-lysine poly(ethylene glycol)-biotin polymer to glass and gold surfaces has been demonstrated using dual wavelength interferometry. Biotinylated proteins were captured onto this surface using tetrameric neutravidin as a multivalent bridging molecule. Biotin tagging of proteins was achieved by chemical biotinylation or by expressing a protein with a biotinylation consensus sequence in E. coli. The specificity of the surface for biotin-tagged proteins allowed the purification of biotin-tagged glutathione-S-transferase from a bacterial lysate directly onto a MALDI target. Subsequently, the protein was digested on the MALDI target and a protein fingerprint analysis confirmed its presence directly, but no E. coli proteins were detected. Therefore, we conclude that this surface is highly specific for the capture of biotin-labelled proteins and has low non-specific binding properties for non-biotinylated proteins. Furthermore, protein-protein interactions using biotinylated lectins were investigated, and the selective capture of the glycoprotein fetuin with wheat germ agglutinin was demonstrated. Also, immobilised Arachis hypogea agglutinin recognised a minor asialo component of this glycoprotein on the array. The high affinity immobilisation of proteins onto this surface allowed effective desalting procedures to be used which improved the desorption of high molecular weight proteins. Another aspect of this surface is that a highly ordered coupling of the analyte can be achieved which eliminates the search for the sweet spot and allows the creation of densely packed protein microarrays for use in mass spectrometry.     

Self‐Assembling Proteins for Design of Anticancer Nanodrugs

Inspired by the diverse protein‐based structures and materials in organisms, proteins have been expected as promising biological components for constructing nanomaterials toward various applications. In numerous studies protein‐based nanomaterials have been constructed with the merits of abundant bioactivity and good biocompatibility. However, self‐assembly of proteins as a dominant approach in constructing anticancer nanodrugs has not been reviewed. Here, we provide a comprehensive account of the role of protein self‐assembly in fabrication, regulation, and application of anticancer nanodrugs. The supramolecular strategies, building blocks, and molecular interactions of protein self‐assembly as well as the properties, functions, and applications of the resulting nanodrugs are discussed. The applications in chemotherapy, radiotherapy, photodynamic therapy, photothermal therapy, gene therapy, and combination therapy are included. Especially, manipulation of molecular interactions for realizing cancer‐specific response and cancer theranostics are emphasized. By expounding the impact of molecular interactions on therapeutic activity, rational design of highly efficient protein‐based nanodrugs for precision anticancer therapy can be envisioned. Also, the challenges and perspectives in constructing nanodrugs based on protein self‐assembly are presented to advance clinical translation of protein‐based nanodrugs and next‐generation nanomedicine.     

Hypervalent nonbonded interactions of a divalent sulfur atom. Implications in protein architecture and the functions

In organic molecules a divalent sulfur atom sometimes adopts weak coordination to a proximate heteroatom (X). Such hypervalent nonbonded S···X interactions can control the molecular structure and chemical reactivity of organic molecules, as well as their assembly and packing in the solid state. In the last decade, similar hypervalent interactions have been demonstrated by statistical database analysis to be present in protein structures. In this review, weak interactions between a divalent sulfur atom and an oxygen or nitrogen atom in proteins are highlighted with several examples. S···O interactions in proteins showed obviously different structural features from those in organic molecules (i.e., π(o) → σ(s)* versus n(o) → σ(s)* directionality). The difference was ascribed to the HOMO of the amide group, which expands in the vertical direction (π(o)) rather than in the plane (n(o)). S···X interactions in four model proteins, phospholipase A? (PLA?), ribonuclease A (RNase A), insulin, and lysozyme, have also been analyzed. The results suggested that S···X interactions would be important factors that control not only the three-dimensional structure of proteins but also their functions to some extent. Thus, S···X interactions will be useful tools for protein engineering and the ligand design.     

Site-specific incorporation of a (19)F-amino acid into proteins as an NMR probe for characterizing protein structure and reactivity

19F NMR is a powerful tool for monitoring protein conformational changes and interactions; however, the inability to site-specifically introduce fluorine labels into proteins of biological interest severely limits its applicability. Using methods for genetically directing incorporation of unnatural amino acids, we have inserted trifluoromethyl-l-phenylalanine (tfm-Phe) into proteins in vivo at TAG nonsense codons with high translational efficiency and fidelity. The binding of substrates, inhibitors, and cofactors, as well as reactions in enzymes, were studied by selective introduction of tfm-Phe and subsequent monitoring of the 19F NMR chemical shifts. Subtle protein conformational changes were detected near the active site and at long distances (25 Angstrom). 19F signal sensitivity and resolution was also sufficient to differentiate protein environments in vivo. Since there has been interest in using 19F-labeled proteins in solid-state membrane protein studies, folding studies, and in vivo studies, this general method for genetically incorporating a 19F-label into proteins of any size in Escherichia coli should have broad application beyond that of monitoring protein conformational changes.