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Deleray AC, Saini SS, Wallberg AC, Kramer JR. Synthetic Antifreeze Glycoproteins with Potent Ice-Binding Activity. CHEMISTRY OF MATERIALS : A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY 2024; 36:3424-3434. [PMID: 38699199 PMCID: PMC11064932 DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.4c00266] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/05/2024]
Abstract
Antifreeze glycoproteins (AFGPs) are produced by extremophiles to defend against tissue damage in freezing climates. Cumbersome isolation from polar fish has limited probing AFGP molecular mechanisms of action and limited development of bioinspired cryoprotectants for application in agriculture, foods, coatings, and biomedicine. Here, we present a rapid, scalable, and tunable route to synthetic AFGPs (sAFGPs) using N-carboxyanhydride polymerization. Our materials are the first mimics to harness the molecular size, chemical motifs, and long-range conformation of native AFGPs. We found that ice-binding activity increases with chain length, Ala is a key residue, and the native protein sequence is not required. The glycan structure had only minor effects, and all glycans examined displayed antifreeze activity. The sAFGPs are biodegradable, nontoxic, internalized into endocytosing cells, and bystanders in cryopreservation of human red blood cells. Overall, our sAFGPs functioned as surrogates for bona fide AFGPs, solving a long-standing challenge in accessing natural antifreeze materials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna C Deleray
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, United States
| | - Simranpreet S Saini
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, United States
| | - Alexander C Wallberg
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, United States
| | - Jessica R Kramer
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, United States
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Bhendale M, Indra A, Singh JK. Does freezing induce self-assembly of polymers? A molecular dynamics study. SOFT MATTER 2023; 19:7570-7579. [PMID: 37751160 DOI: 10.1039/d3sm00892d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/27/2023]
Abstract
This work investigates the freezing-induced self-assembly (FISA) of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and PVA-like polymers using molecular dynamics simulations. In particular, the effect of the degree of supercooling, degree of polymerization, polymer type, and initial local concentration on the FISA was studied. It was found that the preeminent factor responsible for FISA is not the diffusion of the polymers away from the nucleating ice front, but the increase in the polymer's local concentration upon freezing of the solvent (water). At a higher degree of supercooling, the polymers are engulfed by the growing ice front, impeding their diffusion into the supercooled solution and finally inhibiting their self-assembly. Conversely, at a relatively lower degree of supercooling, the rate of diffusion of the polymers into the supercooled solution is higher, which increases their local concentration and results in FISA. FISA was also observed to depend on the polymer-solvent interactions. Strongly favorable solute-solvent interactions hinder the self-assembly, whereas unfavorable solute-solvent interactions promote the self-assembly. The polymer and aggregate morphology were investigated using the radius of gyration, end-to-end distance, and asphericity analysis. This study brings molecular insights into the quintessential factors governing self-assembly via freezing of the solvent, which is a novel self-assembly technique especially suitable for biomedical applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mangesh Bhendale
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh 208016, India.
| | - Aindrila Indra
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh 208016, India.
| | - Jayant K Singh
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh 208016, India.
- Prescience Insilico Private Limited, 5th floor, Novel MSR Building, Marathalli, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560037, India
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Yuan T, DeFever RS, Zhou J, Cortes-Morales EC, Sarupria S. RSeeds: Rigid Seeding Method for Studying Heterogeneous Crystal Nucleation. J Phys Chem B 2023; 127:4112-4125. [PMID: 37130351 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.3c00910] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
Heterogeneous nucleation is the dominant form of liquid-to-solid transition in nature. Although molecular simulations are most uniquely suited to studying nucleation, the waiting time to observe even a single nucleation event can easily exceed the current computational capabilities. Therefore, there exists an imminent need for methods that enable computationally fast and feasible studies of heterogeneous nucleation. Seeding is a technique that has proven to be successful at dramatically expanding the range of computationally accessible nucleation rates in simulation studies of homogeneous crystal nucleation. In this article, we introduce a new seeding method for heterogeneous nucleation called Rigid Seeding (RSeeds). Crystalline seeds are treated as pseudorigid bodies and simulated on a surface with metastable liquid above its melting temperature. This allows the seeds to adapt to the surface and identify favorable seed-surface configurations, which is necessary for reliable predictions of crystal polymorphs that form and the corresponding heterogeneous nucleation rates. We demonstrate and validate RSeeds for heterogeneous ice nucleation on a flexible self-assembled monolayer surface, a mineral surface based on kaolinite, and two model surfaces. RSeeds predicts the correct ice polymorph, exposed crystal plane, and rotation on the surface. RSeeds is semiquantitative and can be used to estimate the critical nucleus size and nucleation rate when combined with classical nucleation theory. We demonstrate that RSeeds can be used to evaluate nucleation rates spanning many orders of magnitude.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tianmu Yuan
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634, United States
- Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester, U.K. M13 9PL
| | - Ryan S DeFever
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634, United States
| | - Jiarun Zhou
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634, United States
| | | | - Sapna Sarupria
- Department of Chemistry, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, United States
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Metya AK, Molinero V. Is Ice Nucleation by Organic Crystals Nonclassical? An Assessment of the Monolayer Hypothesis of Ice Nucleation. J Am Chem Soc 2021; 143:4607-4624. [PMID: 33729789 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.0c12012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Potent ice nucleating organic crystals display an increase in nucleation efficiency with pressure and memory effect after pressurization that set them apart from inorganic nucleants. These characteristics were proposed to arise from an ordered water monolayer at the organic-water interface. It was interpreted that ordering of the monolayer is the limiting step for ice nucleation on organic crystals, rendering their mechanism of nucleation nonclassical. Despite the importance of organics in atmospheric ice nucleation, that explanation has never been investigated. Here we elucidate the structure of interfacial water and its role in ice nucleation at ambient pressure on phloroglucinol dihydrate, the paradigmatic example of outstanding ice nucleating organic crystal, using molecular simulations. The simulations confirm the existence of an interfacial monolayer that orders on cooling and becomes fully ordered upon ice formation. The monolayer does not resemble any ice face but seamlessly connects the distinct hydrogen-bonding orders of ice and the organic surface. Although large ordered patches develop in the monolayer before ice nucleates, we find that the critical step is the formation of the ice crystallite, indicating that the mechanism is classical. We predict that the fully ordered, crystalline monolayer nucleates ice above -2 °C and could be responsible for the exceptional ice nucleation by the organic crystal at high pressures. The lifetime of the fully ordered monolayer around 0 °C, however, is too short to account for the memory effect reported in the experiments. The latter could arise from an increase in the melting temperature of ice confined by strongly ice-binding surfaces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Atanu K Metya
- Department of Chemistry, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-0850, United States
| | - Valeria Molinero
- Department of Chemistry, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-0850, United States
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Brooks CL, Case DA, Plimpton S, Roux B, van der Spoel D, Tajkhorshid E. Classical molecular dynamics. J Chem Phys 2021; 154:100401. [DOI: 10.1063/5.0045455] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Charles L. Brooks
- Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
| | - David A. Case
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08854, USA
| | - Steve Plimpton
- Computational Multiscale Department, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185-1316, USA
| | - Benoît Roux
- Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
| | - David van der Spoel
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Emad Tajkhorshid
- NIH Center for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics, Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, Department of Biochemistry, and Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
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