College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing Key Laboratory of Functional Food from Plant Resources, Beijing 100083, China.
Chem Soc Rev. 2021 Mar 21;50(6):3957-3989. doi: 10.1039/d0cs01349h. Epub 2021 Feb 15.
Compartmentalization is a hallmark of living systems. Through compartmentalization, ubiquitous protein nanocages such as viral capsids, ferritin, small heat shock proteins, and DNA-binding proteins from starved cells fulfill a variety of functions, while their shell-like structures hold great promise for various applications in the field of nanomedicine and nanotechnology. However, the number and structure of natural protein nanocages are limited, and these natural protein nanocages may not be suited for a given application, which might impede their further application as nanovehicles, biotemplates or building blocks. To overcome these shortcomings, different strategies have been developed by scientists to construct artificial protein nanocages, and 1D, 2D and 3D protein arrays with protein nanocages as building blocks through genetic and chemical modification to rival the size and functionality of natural protein nanocages. This review outlines the recent advances in the field of the design and construction of artificial protein nanocages and their assemblies with higher order, summarizes the strategies for creating the assembly of protein nanocages from zero-dimension to three dimensions, and introduces their corresponding applications in the preparation of nanomaterials, electrochemistry, and drug delivery. The review will highlight the roles of both the inter-subunit/intermolecular interactions at the key interface and the protein symmetry in constructing and controlling protein nanocage assemblies with different dimensions.
分隔化是生命系统的一个标志。通过分隔化，普遍存在的蛋白质纳米笼，如病毒衣壳、铁蛋白、小热休克蛋白和饥饿细胞中的 DNA 结合蛋白，能够发挥多种功能，而它们的壳状结构在纳米医学和纳米技术领域的各种应用中具有很大的应用前景。然而，天然蛋白质纳米笼的数量和结构是有限的，并且这些天然蛋白质纳米笼可能不适合特定的应用，这可能会阻碍它们作为纳米载体、生物模板或构建块的进一步应用。为了克服这些缺点，科学家们开发了不同的策略来构建人工蛋白质纳米笼，并通过遗传和化学修饰构建具有蛋白质纳米笼作为构建块的 1D、2D 和 3D 蛋白质阵列，以与天然蛋白质纳米笼的大小和功能相媲美。本文综述了人工蛋白质纳米笼的设计和构建及其高级组装的最新进展，总结了从零维到三维构建蛋白质纳米笼组装的策略，并介绍了它们在纳米材料制备、电化学和药物传递方面的应用。本文将重点介绍关键界面处的亚基/分子间相互作用和蛋白质对称性在构建和控制不同维度的蛋白质纳米笼组装中的作用。
