Smart bio-nano interface derived from zein protein as receptors for biotinyl moiety

Subramanian Suriyanarayanan; Sudip Mandal; Kothandaraman Ramanujam; Ian A Nicholls

doi:10.1016/j.talanta.2023.124298

Smart bio-nano interface derived from zein protein as receptors for biotinyl moiety

Talanta. 2023 May 1:256:124298. doi: 10.1016/j.talanta.2023.124298. Epub 2023 Jan 21.

Authors

Subramanian Suriyanarayanan¹, Sudip Mandal², Kothandaraman Ramanujam³, Ian A Nicholls⁴

Affiliations

¹ Bioorganic & Biophysical Chemistry Laboratory, Linnaeus University Centre for Biomaterials Chemistry, Department of Chemistry & Biomedical Sciences, Linnaeus University, SE-391 82, Kalmar, Sweden. Electronic address: esusu@lnu.se.
² Department of Chemistry, School of Applied Sciences and Humanities, Vignan's Foundation for Science, Technology and Research (Deemed to Be University), Vadlamudi, Guntur, 522 213, Andhra Pradesh, India. Electronic address: drs_sh@vignan.ac.in.
³ Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, 600 036, India. Electronic address: rkraman@iitm.ac.in.
⁴ Bioorganic & Biophysical Chemistry Laboratory, Linnaeus University Centre for Biomaterials Chemistry, Department of Chemistry & Biomedical Sciences, Linnaeus University, SE-391 82, Kalmar, Sweden. Electronic address: ian.nicholls@lnu.se.

PMID: 36701858
DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2023.124298

Abstract

Proteinaceous, tunable nanostructures of zein (prolamine of corn) were developed as biotinyl-specific receptors using a molecular imprinting technique. Sacrificial templates, such as latex beads (LB3) and anodized alumina membrane (AAM), have been used to control nanostructural patterns in biotin-imprinted zein (BMZ). Briefly, a methanolic solution of the zein-biotin complex was drop cast upon a self-organized LB3 and AAM templates on Au/quartz surfaces. Subsequent dissolution of these sacrificial templates affords highly oriented, predetermined, and uniformly grown hyperporous (300 nm) and nanowires (150 nm) motifs of zein (BMZ-LB3 and BMZ-AAM), as shown by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Selective extraction of biotin molecular template cast-off site-selective biotin imprints within these zein nanostructures complementary to biotinyl moieties. Alternatively, biotin-imprinted zein nanoparticles (BMZ-Np) and thin film (BMZ-MeOH) were prepared by coacervation and drop casting methods, respectively. Density functional theoretical (DFT) studies reveal strong hydrogen-bonded interaction of biotin with serine and glutamine residues of zein. Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) studies show remarkable sensitivity of the hyperporous-BMZ-LB3 and nanowires of BMZ-AAM towards biotin derivative (biotin methyl ester) by five (24.75 ± 1.34 Hz/mM) and four (18.19 ± 0.75 Hz/mM) times, respectively, higher than the BMZ-MeOH. Enhanced permeability features of the zein nanostructures, when templated with LB3, enable the QCM detection of biotin- or its derivatives down to 12.9 ng mL^-1 from dairy products (Kefir). The outcome of this study shall be a key aspect in interfacing biological materials with micro-/nano-sensors and electronic devices for detecting pertinent analytes using sustainably developed biopolymer-based nanostructures.

Keywords: Biotin-biosensor; Imprinted biopolymer; Protein nanostructures; Quartz crystal microbalance; Sacrificial template; Zein.

MeSH terms

Biotin
Molecular Imprinting*
Nanostructures*
Quartz Crystal Microbalance Techniques / methods
Zein* / chemistry

Substances

Zein
Biotin