A rationally designed supercharged protein-enzyme chimera self-assembles in situ to yield bifunctional composite textiles

DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c18857

Authors: Graham J. Day (University of Bristol) , William H. Zhang (University of Bristol) , Ben M. Carter (University of Bristol) , Wenjin Xiao (University of Bristol) , Mark R. Sambrook (Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl)) , Adam W. Perriman (University of Bristol)
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Acs Applied Materials & Interfaces

State: Published (Approved)
Published: December 2021
Diamond Proposal Number(s): 17972 , 16970

Abstract: Catalytically active materials for the enhancement of personalized protective equipment (PPE) could be advantageous to help alleviate threats posed by neurotoxic organophosphorus compounds (OPs). Accordingly, a chimeric protein comprised of a supercharged green fluorescent protein (scGFP) and phosphotriesterase from Agrobacterium radiobacter (arPTE) was designed to drive the polymer surfactant (S–)-mediated self-assembly of microclusters to produce robust, enzymatically active materials. The chimera scGFP-arPTE was structurally characterized via circular dichroism spectroscopy and synchrotron radiation small-angle X-ray scattering, and its biophysical properties were determined. Significantly, the chimera exhibited greater thermal stability than the native constituent proteins, as well as a higher catalytic turnover number (kcat). Furthermore, scGFP-arPTE was electrostatically complexed with monomeric S–, driving self-assembly into [scGFP-arPTE][S–] nanoclusters, which could be dehydrated and cross-linked to yield enzymatically active [scGFP-arPTE][S–] porous films with a high-order structure. Moreover, these clusters could self-assemble within cotton fibers to generate active composite textiles without the need for the pretreatment of the fabrics. Significantly, the resulting materials maintained the biophysical activities of both constituent proteins and displayed recyclable and persistent activity against the nerve agent simulant paraoxon.

Journal Keywords: composite material; active material; hierarchical self-assembly; bifunctionality; catalysis; decontamination; enzyme

Diamond Keywords: Enzymes

Subject Areas: Biology and Bio-materials, Materials, Chemistry


Instruments: B21-High Throughput SAXS , I22-Small angle scattering & Diffraction

Added On: 15/12/2021 09:10

Discipline Tags:

Biomaterials Health & Wellbeing Catalysis Neurology Chemistry Structural biology Materials Science Composite Materials Life Sciences & Biotech

Technical Tags:

Scattering Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) Wide Angle X-ray Scattering (WAXS)