Leong Weng I, Lo Owen Lok In, Cheng Fong Tin, Cheong Wai Man, Seak Leo Chi U
Pui Ching Middle School (Macau), Edificio Pui Ching, 7A Av. de Horta e Costa, Macau SAR, China.
The Centre for Inflammation Research, University of Edinburgh, 47 Little France Crescent, Edinburgh, EH16 4TJ, United Kingdom.
Synth Syst Biotechnol. 2021 Nov 5;6(4):369-376. doi: 10.1016/j.synbio.2021.10.005. eCollection 2021 Dec.
Current fire retardants are known to be toxic to humans and our environment. As environmental-friendly flame retardants (FRs), protein-based flame retardants have been studied extensively recently, even though they are not durable. In this study, we designed, synthesized and tested a durable protein-based FR through the fusion of the adhesion domain from either mussel foot protein-5 (mfp-5) or cellulose-binding domain (CBD) with flame retardant protein (SR protein and alpha casein). We first verified the expression of the recombinant proteins in using Western blot. Then, we coated the fusion protein (carrying cell lysates) to cotton fabrics and wood and verified with Infrared (IR) spectroscopy. Using a vertical burning test and wood flammability test, we confirmed the flame retardancy of the materials after the protein coating. In the vertical burning test, the SR protein and alpha casein flame retardant proteins with the CBD adhesion domain showed a 50.0% and 43.3% increase in flame retardancy. The data is also consistent in the wood flame retardancy test. Confocal imaging experiments also suggested these new fire retardants can be preserved on the materials well even after washing. Overall, our results showed that flame-retardant proteins with adhesion domains are high potential candidates of green alternative flame retardants.
目前已知的阻燃剂对人类和我们的环境有毒。作为环保型阻燃剂（FRs），基于蛋白质的阻燃剂近年来已得到广泛研究，尽管它们并不耐用。在本研究中，我们通过将贻贝足蛋白-5（mfp-5）的粘附结构域或纤维素结合结构域（CBD）与阻燃蛋白（SR蛋白和α-酪蛋白）融合，设计、合成并测试了一种耐用的基于蛋白质的FR。我们首先使用蛋白质印迹法在[具体实验对象]中验证了重组蛋白的表达。然后，我们将融合蛋白（携带细胞裂解物）涂覆在棉织物和木材上，并用红外（IR）光谱进行验证。通过垂直燃烧试验和木材可燃性试验，我们证实了蛋白质涂层后材料的阻燃性。在垂直燃烧试验中，带有CBD粘附结构域的SR蛋白和α-酪蛋白阻燃蛋白的阻燃性分别提高了50.0%和43.3%。木材阻燃性试验的数据也与此一致。共聚焦成像实验还表明，即使在洗涤后，这些新型阻燃剂仍能很好地保留在材料上。总体而言，我们的结果表明，带有粘附结构域的阻燃蛋白是绿色替代阻燃剂的高潜力候选物。
