Dipartimento di Chimica "G. Ciamician", Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, via F. Selmi 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy.
Nanoscale. 2018 May 31;10(21):9908-9916. doi: 10.1039/c8nr02220h.
Hybrid systems have great potential for a wide range of applications in chemistry, physics and materials science. Conjugation of a biosystem to a molecular material can tune the properties of the components or give rise to new properties. As a workhorse, here we take a C60@lysozyme hybrid. We show that lysozyme recognizes and disperses fullerene in water. AFM, cryo-TEM and high resolution X-ray powder diffraction show that the C60 dispersion is monomolecular. The adduct is biocompatible, stable in physiological and technologically-relevant environments, and easy to store. Hybridization with lysozyme preserves the electrochemical properties of C60. EPR spin-trapping experiments show that the C60@lysozyme hybrid produces ROS following both type I and type II mechanisms. Due to the shielding effect of proteins, the adduct generates significant amounts of 1O2 also in aqueous solution. In the case of type I mechanism, the protein residues provide electrons and the hybrid does not require addition of external electron donors. The preparation process and the properties of C60@lysozyme are general and can be expected to be similar to other C60@protein systems. It is envisaged that the properties of the C60@protein hybrids will pave the way for a host of applications in nanomedicine, nanotechnology, and photocatalysis.
杂化系统在化学、物理和材料科学的广泛应用中具有巨大的潜力。将生物系统与分子材料连接起来可以调整组件的性质或产生新的性质。在这里，我们以 C60@溶菌酶杂化体为例。我们表明，溶菌酶可以识别并在水中分散富勒烯。原子力显微镜、低温透射电子显微镜和高分辨率 X 射线粉末衍射表明，C60 的分散是单分子的。该加合物具有生物相容性，在生理和技术相关环境中稳定，易于储存。与溶菌酶的杂交保留了 C60 的电化学性质。电子顺磁共振自旋捕获实验表明，C60@溶菌酶杂化体通过 I 型和 II 型机制产生 ROS。由于蛋白质的屏蔽效应，加合物在水溶液中也产生大量的 1O2。在 I 型机制中，蛋白质残基提供电子，杂化体不需要添加外部电子供体。C60@溶菌酶的制备过程和性质是通用的，可以预期与其他 C60@蛋白质系统相似。预计 C60@蛋白质杂化体的性质将为纳米医学、纳米技术和光催化等领域的一系列应用铺平道路。
