南开大学化学系史林启小组近日取得一项新成果。经过不懈努力，他们解读了纳米伴侣调节热变性蛋白质重新折叠的过程。该项研究成果发表在2021年2月17日出版的《德国应用化学》上。

课题组深入研究了不同的带电纳米伴侣调控热变性溶菌酶的再折叠过程。研究人员发现，溶菌酶捕获和释放之间的平衡在纳米伴侣调节其再折叠中起着关键作用。更重要的是，这一发现也适用于其他具有不同理化性质的酶。在此基础上，无论是酶在40℃保存20天，还是高温加热30~ 60min后，研究人员均能高效恢复其活性。这项结果为纳米分子伴侣体系提供了重要的新设计策略，以改善其性能并扩展其应用。

据介绍，近年来，纳米分子伴侣被设计出来以调节蛋白质（再）折叠、治疗蛋白质错误折叠引起的疾病或用于药物递送。尽管取得了各种成功，但人们对其工作机制的理解仍然很少，这对实现纳米分子伴侣的全部潜力是一个巨大的挑战。

附：英文原文

Title: A Balance Between Capture and Release: Deciphering the Processes of Nanochaperones Regulate Refolding of Thermally Denatured Proteins

Author: Feihe Ma, Xiaohui Wu, Ang Li, Linlin Xu, Yingli An, Linqi Shi

Issue&Volume: 2021-02-17

Abstract: Nanochaperones have been designed and used for regulating (re)folding of proteins, treating protein misfolding diseases, and drug delivery in recent years. Despite various successes, understanding of the working mechanisms has remained elusive, which is a big challenge to realize their full potential. Here we thoroughly investigated the processes of different charged nanochaperones regulate the refolding of thermally denatured lysozyme. We found that the balance between capture and release of lysozyme clients that regulated by nanochaperones play a key role in regulating refolding. More importantly, the findings also worked for other enzymes that with various physiochemical properties. On the basis of these findings, we could recover the activity of enzymes with high efficiency either after storing enzymes at 40 oC for 20 days or heating enzymes at high temperature for 30~60 min. Our results provide importantly additional design strategies of nanochaperone systems to improve their properties and expand their applications.

DOI: 10.1002/anie.202101462

Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.202101462