A comparative study of structural and dynamical properties of bovine serum albumin in the presence of spermine

Investigating the effect of pH on the interaction of cypermethrin with human serum albumin: Insights from spectroscopic and molecular dynamics simulation studies

To efficiently combat the negative consequences of the utilization of pesticides and hazardous substances with biomolecules, it is crucial to comprehend the features of the corresponding compounds. In this study, interactions between cypermethrin (CYP) and HSA at neutral and acidic pH were investigated using a set of spectroscopic and computational tools, such as UV/VIS's absorption spectroscopy, fluorescence, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics. Furthermore, the effect of CYP on the HSA thermal stability was investigated. The increase in the CYP concentration at acidic and neutral pH resulted in static HSA fluorescence quenching. In the interaction between HSA and CYP at both pH, increasing the temperature led to a decrease in the Stern-Volmer quenching constant and the binding constant. We also revealed that with increasing CYP concentration, the melting temperature of HSA increases at both pH values.

Albumin-based nanosystem for dual-modality imaging-guided chem-phototherapy against immune-cold triple-negative breast cancer

Triple-negative breast cancer is a highly aggressive and metastatic tumor; diagnosing it in the early stages is still difficult, and the prognosis for conventional radio-chemotherapy and immunotreatment is not promising due to cancer's immunosuppressive microenvironment. The utilization of protein-based nanosystem has proven to be effective in delivering agents with limited adverse effects, yet the combination of diagnosis and treatment remains a difficult challenge. This research took advantage of natural albumin and organic molecules to construct a self-assemble core-shell nanostructure combining with superparamagnetic iron oxide nanocrystals and heptamethine cyanine dye IR780 through non-covalent interactions. This nanocomposite successfully decreased the transverse relaxation time of the magnetic resonance hydrogen nucleus, resulting in outstanding T2 imaging, as well as emitting near-infrared II fluorescence, thereby the resulting dual-modality imaging tool was applied to improve diagnostic competency. It is noteworthy that the nanocomposites exhibited impressive enzyme-like catalytic and photothermal capabilities, resulting in a successful activation of the immune system to efficiently suppress distant metastatic lesions in vivo. Consequently, this nano-drug-based therapy could be an advantageous asset in reinforcing the immune system and hindering the growth and reappearance of the immune-cold breast cancer.

Peracetic acid integrated catalytic ceramic membrane filtration for enhanced membrane fouling control: Performance evaluation and mechanism analysis

Endowing ceramic membrane (CM) catalytic reactivity can enhance membrane fouling control in the aid of in situ oxidation process. Peracetic acid (PAA) oxidant holds great prospect to integrate with CM for membrane fouling control, owing to the prominent advantages of high oxidation efficacy and easy activation. Herein, this study, for the first time, presented a PAA/CM catalytic filtration system achieving highly-efficient protein fouling alleviation. A FeOCl functionalized CM (FeOCl-CM) was synthesized, possessing high hydrophilicity, low surface roughness, and highly-efficient activation towards PAA oxidation. Using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as the model protein foulant, the PAA/FeOCl-CM catalytic filtration notably alleviated fouling occurring in both membrane pores and surface, and halved the flux reduction degree as compared with the conventional CM filtration. The PAA/FeOCl-CM catalytic oxidation allows quick and complete disintegration of BSA particles, via the breakage of the amide I and II bands and the ring opening of the aromatic amino acids (e.g., Tryptophan, Tyrosine). In-depth investigation revealed that the in situ generated ^•OH and ¹O₂ were the key reactive species towards BSA degradation during catalytic filtration, while the organic radical oxidation and the direct electron transfer pathway from BSA to PAA via FeOCl-CM played minor roles. Overall, our findings highlight a new PAA/CM catalytic filtration strategy for achieving highly-efficient membrane fouling control and provide an understanding of the integrated PAA catalytic oxidation - membrane filtration behaviors.

Biomimetic multifunctional nanozymes enhanced radiosensitization for breast cancer via an X-ray triggered cascade reaction

Radiotherapy has been widely applied for breast cancer treatment in the clinic, while improving the radiation sensitivity of tumors and protecting normal tissues from radiation damage has drawn considerable attention. In this study, we reported a biomimetic multifunctional nanozyme (BSA@CeO/Fe²⁺), which can be used as a radiosensitizer for breast cancer treatment. It was demonstrated that BSA@CeO/Fe²⁺ presented a pH dependent multiple enzyme like activity that enhances the hydroxyl radical level by cascade catalytic reactions in a tumor microenvironment to obtain a desirable tumor-suppression rate (83.07%). Moreover, BSA@CeO/Fe²⁺ was also proved to reduce reactive oxygen species levels in normal cells. Additionally, BSA@CeO/Fe²⁺ nanozymes showed no obvious toxicity by routine blood examination and blood biochemistry assays. Therefore, this work provided a promising strategy for nanocatalytic tumor therapy by rationally designing biomimetic nanozymes with multienzymatic activities for achieving high radiotherapy efficacy and excellent biosafety simultaneously.

The interaction between bovine serum albumin and [6]-,[8]- and [10]-gingerol: An effective strategy to improve the solubility and stability of gingerol

In this study, the binding mechanism between bovine serum albumin (BSA) and three gingerols ([6]-, [8]- and [10]-gingerol) was evaluated to explore an effective strategy for improving solubility and stability of gingerols. The fluorescence analysis suggested gingerols could bind with BSA to form a stable BSA/gingerols complex and [10]-gingerol had the strongest binding affinity (K_a = 4.016 × 10⁴ L/mol) at 298 K. Thermodynamic parameters and molecular modeling validated that hydrophobic interaction and hydrogen bonds were the main driving force for the interaction of BSA/gingerols. Gingerols bound to BSA at site I (subdomain IIA) resulted in a conformational change of BSA with a structure shrinkage, which was responsible for the decrease of surface hydrophobicity. The formation of BSA/gingerols complexes promoted the solubility of [6]-, [8]- and [10]-gingerol increasing by 1.50, 6.04 and 23.50 times, respectively. In addition, the stability and antioxidant capacity of gingerols was significantly improved after binding with BSA.