Sharif Digital Repository

A simple bio-conjugation procedure to surround a single horseradish peroxidase (HRP) enzyme molecule with dendritic polyester macromolecules (polyester-32-hydroxyl-1-carboxyl bis-MPA dendron, generation 5) was proposed. The characterization of resultant nanoparticles entitled HRP dendrozyme, was performed by transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, gel permeation chromatography and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results showed that HRP nanoparticles were spherical in shape and have an average size of 14 ± 2. nm in diameter. Furthermore, bio-conformational characterization of HRP dendrozyme was performed by means of circular dichroism and fluorescence... 

The significant role of protein nanoparticle interactions in nanomedicine and nanotoxicity is emerging recently through the identification of the nanoparticles (NP) protein (biomolecule) corona. The dynamic layer of proteins and/or other biomolecules adsorbed to the nanoparticle surface determines how a NP interacts with living systems and thereby modifies the cellular responses to the NP. Ehrenberg and co-workers used cultured endothelium cells as a model for vascular transport of polystyrene NP with various functional groups, which showed that the capacity of the various NP surfaces to adsorb proteins was indicative of their tendency to associate with cells. The quantification of the... 

The cellular microenvironment can be engineered through the utilization of various nano-patterns and matrix-loaded bioactive molecules. In this study, a multilayer system of electrospun scaffold containing chitosan nanoparticles was introduced to overcome the common problems of instability and burst release of proteins from nanofibrous scaffolds. Bovine serum albumin (BSA)-loaded chitosan nanoparticles was fabricated based on ionic gelation interaction between chitosan and sodium tripolyphosphate. Suspension electrospinning was employed to fabricate poly-e{open}-caprolacton (PCL) containing protein-loaded chitosan nanoparticles with a core-shell structure. To obtain the desired scaffold... 

The aggregation of an amyloid protein, α-synuclein (α-Syn), has been suggested as a potential cause of Parkinson's and several other neurodegenerative diseases. To explore the possibility of using nanoparticle-based therapeutic agents for the treatment of such diseases, we investigated the influence of surface chemistry and concentration of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNPs) on the fibrillation of recombinant human α-Syn protein in the present work. Bare MSNPs as well as MSNPs of different surface functionalities, including 3-(2-aminoethyl amino) propyltrimethoxysilane (AAS), succinic anhydride (carboxyl), and polyethyleneimine (PEI) were prepared and characterized by electron... 

A facile approach for the preparation of core-shell structured poly(acrylic acid) (PAA)-coated Fe3O4 cluster@SiO2 nanocomposite particles as the support materials for the lipase immobilization is reported. Low- or high-molecular-weight (1800 and 100 000, respectively) PAA molecules were covalently attached onto the surface of amine-functionalized magnetic silica nanoacomposite particles. The successful preparation of particles were verified by scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), zeta potential measurement, and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) techniques. Once lipase is covalently... 

Since physiological and pathological processes occur at nano-environments, nanotechnology has considered as an efficient tool for designing of next generation specific biomolecules with enhanced pharmacodynamic and pharmacodynamic properties. In the current investigation, by control of the size and hydrodynamic volume at the nanoscale, for the first time, physicochemical and pharmacokinetic properties of an anti-VEGFA nanobody was remarkably improved by attachment of a Proline-Alanine-Serine (PAS) rich sequence. The results elucidated unexpected impressive effects of PAS sequence on physicochemical properties especially on size, hydrodynamics radius, and even solubility of nanobody. CD... 

New membrane materials and processes have been extensively developed due to urgent needs for much more economic separation processes. Recently, graphene has been confirmed to be an excellent separation membrane. As there is no support in the obtained three-dimensional (3D) architecture constructed from tubular graphene network, it is possible to take full advantage of the large surface of graphene. In this study 3D graphene aerogels were synthesized by a simple method and modified to adjust hydrophilicity of the samples to achieve high liquid volumetric rate. Modified samples were used for the filtration of the enzymes including amylase, cellulase, lipase and protease. Slightly differently... 

The asymmetric transmission (AT) has attracted wide attention due to its novel applications. In this paper, we propose and investigate a tunable polarization-dependent intrinsically chiral graphene metasurface composed of split ring arrays in terahertz (THz) region. The resonance frequency of the structure is sensitive to the graphene chemical potential. Circular conversion dichroism (CCD) of the proposed structure is tunable and is reached to 0.36. Our work paths a new approach to propose some other compact and on-chip polarization-dependent structures in THz region. Furthermore, our proposed structure could be a useful segment in polarization-dependent systems. © 2019 Elsevier B.V  

Semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are among the few photostable optical emitters that are ideal for sensing, imaging, drug delivery, and monitoring of protein activity. These applications often require strategies for immobilizing proteins onto the nanotube while preserving the optical properties of the SWCNTs. Site-specific and oriented immobilization strategies, in particular, offer advantages for improving sensor and optical signaling responses. In this study, we demonstrate site-specific protein immobilization of a model of enhanced yellow fluorescent protein with a single engineered cysteine residue, using either single-stranded DNA or a pyrene-containing linker to... 

Fluorescence spectroscopy in combination with circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy were used to investigate the interaction of water-soluble amino acid Schiff base complexes, [Zn(L1,2)(phen)] where phen is 1,10-phenanthroline and H2L1,2 is amino acid Schiff base ligands, with bovine serum albumin (BSA) under the physiological conditions in phosphate buffer solution adjusted to pH 7.0. The quenching mechanism of fluorescence was suggested as static quenching according to the Stern-Volmer equation. Quenching constants were determined using the Stern-Volmer equation to provide a measure of the binding affinity between amino acid Schiff base complexes and BSA. The thermodynamic parameters ΔG, ΔH... 

Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) were used to investigate the interaction between copper(II) complex of compartmental Schiff base ligand (L), N,N′-bis(3-hydroxysalicylidene)ethylenediamine, and bovine serum albumin (BSA) in 0.1 mol dm-3 phosphate buffer solution adjusted to physiological pH 7.0 containing 20% (w/w) dimethylsulfoxide at room temperature. CD spectra show that the interaction of the copper(II) complex with BSA leads to changes in the α-helical content of BSA and therefore changes in secondary structure of the protein with the slight red shift (2 nm) in CD spectra. From the voltammetric data, i.e. changes in... 

Proteins possess a variety of nucleophiles, which can carry out different reactions in the functioning cells. Proteins endogenously and synthetically can be modified through their nucleophilic sites. The roles of these chemical modifications have not been completely revealed. These modifications can alter the protein folding process. Protein folding directly affects the function of proteins. If an error in protein folding occurs, it may cause protein malfunction leading to several neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. In this study, Hen Egg White Lysozyme (HEWL) and bovine insulin, as model proteins for studying the amyloid formation, were covalently attached with... 

Chiral recognition has long been a challenging issue to deal with in biological systems, drug design and food authentication. Implementing nanoparticle-based probes with intrinsic or induced chirality in this field has addressed several issues concerning sensitivity, reliability, rapidness and the cost of chiral sensing platforms. Yet, research into chiral nanoprobes that can be used for visual monitoring of chiral substances is still in its infancy. As part of this study, a visual chiral recognition platform has been developed in which a combination of blue-emitting carbon dots (BCDs) and mercaptopropionic acid-capped CdTe quantum dots (MPA-QDs) with inherent chiroptical activity were... 

Viral diseases have long been among the biggest challenges for healthcare systems around the world. The recent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is an example of how complicated the situation can get if we are not prepared to combat a viral outbreak in time, which brings up the need for quick and affordable biosensing platforms and vast knowledge of potential antiviral effects and drug/gene delivery opportunities. The same challenges have also existed for nonviral immunogenic disorders. Nanomedicine is considered a novel candidate for effectively overcoming these worldwide challenges. Among the versatile nanomaterials commonly used in biomedical applications, graphene has recently...