Multifunctional nanoparticle-protein conjugates with controllable bioactivity and pH responsiveness
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Updated: Mar 26, 2026

Synthesis of Stimuli-responsive Nanogels using Aqueous One-step Crosslinking and Co-nanopolymerization
Published on: January 24, 2025
Feng Liu1, Lulu Xue1, Yuqi Yuan1
1The Key Lab of Health Chemistry and Molecular Diagnosis of Suzhou, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, P. R. China. wanghw@suda.edu.cn yuanl@suda.edu.cn.
Abstract:
The modulation of protein activity is of significance for disease therapy, molecular diagnostics, and tissue engineering. Nanoparticles offer a new platform for the preparation of protein conjugates with improved protein properties. In the present work, Escherichia coli (E. coli) inorganic pyrophosphatase (PPase) and poly(methacrylic acid) (PMAA) were attached together to gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), forming AuNP-PPase-PMAA conjugates having controllable multi-biofunctionalities and responsiveness to pH. By treating with poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) and regulating the pH, the bioactivity of the conjugate becomes "on/off"-switchable. In addition, by taking advantage of the ability of AuNPs to undergo reversible aggregation/dispersion, the conjugates can be recycled and reused multiple times; and due to the shielding effect of the PMAA, the conjugated enzyme has high resistance to protease digestion. This approach has considerable potential in areas such as controlled delivery and release of drugs, biosensing, and biocatalysis.
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Conjugated Proteins
Nucleoproteins are protein complexes that contain nucleic acids, categorized as deoxyribonucleoproteins (DNPs) or ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) respectively. The nucleosome is a typical example of a DNP where nuclear DNA is associated with histone proteins. The major antigen for the Covid-19 virus SARS-CoV is an RNP that is critical...

