Engineering Protein Nanoparticles Out from Components of the Human Microbiome

LÓPEZ LAGUNA, HÈCTOR; SÁNCHEZ GARCÍA, LAURA; SERNA, NAROA; VOLTÀ DURÁN, ERIC; SÁNCHEZ, JULIETA M.; SÁNCHEZ CHARDI, ALEJANDRO; UNZUETA, UGUTZ; LOS, MARCIN; VILLAVERDE, ANTONIO; VÁZQUEZ, ESTHER

SMALL

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH

Año: 2020 vol. 16

1613-6810

Because of their low interactivity with human body components and their toleratedimmunogenicity, proteins derived from the human microbiome are appealing, fullybiocompatible building blocks for the biofabrication of inert protein materials to be usedin systemic application as drug carriers and in other clinical uses. Several phage andphage-like bacterial proteins with natural structural roles have been produced inEscherichia coli as polyhistidine-tagged recombinant proteins, pursuing theirassembling as discrete, nanoscale particulate materials. While all of them selfassembledin a variety of sizes, their stability at 37 ºC was found to be severelycompromised. However, by selectively adjusting temperature and Zn 2+concentration we favored the formation of robust nanomaterials, fully stable in complexmedia and under physiological conditions. On these basis, microbiome-derivedproteins show promises for the regulatable construction of scaffold protein materials,which can be tailored and strengthened by a simple physicochemical fine-tuning.