Polyoxometalates as molecular models for mineral nanoparticle – protein interactions
Abstract
Oxygen is the most abundant element in the earth crust and primary constituent of minerals in soils and waters. Sand minerals such as silicon oxide and metal oxides have been through the whole history of life on Earth been generated via weathering of the primary silicate minerals. They are thus necessarily biocompatible as life has emerged and was developing in their constant pres-ence. Variation in size of the mineral nanoparticles (NP) makes direct structural investigation of their interaction with biomolecules, in the first hand, proteins, challenging forcing researchers to rely on indirect characterization methods. In our studies, we proposed to apply polyoxometalate species (POM) in complexes with oligopeptides as molecular models for revealing bonding modes and reac-tion mechanisms of NP. The influence of such factors as polarity on M-O bond, thermal pre-history of solution [1], peptide chain length and hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity [2], acidity and salinity of the media [3] on the structure and bonding in POM-peptide complexes have been investigated. Application of POM models in explanation of the anti-viral activity in combination with NMR studies brought light on possible binding modes used by NP in blocking functional viral proteins [4]. Direct insight into redox nanozyme activity of NP was obtained by structural investigation of tryptophan and related peptide complexes with POM. Evidence for direct transformation pro-cesses not necessarily involving reactive oxygen species has been obtained permitting to trace complete reaction mechanisms [5]. References [1] K.M. Rominger, G.A. Seisenbaeva, V.G. Kessler et al., Eur. J. Inorg. Chem., 2019, 4297–4305. [2] B. Greijer, G.A. Seisenbaeva, V.G. Kessler et al., Eur. J. Inorg. Chem., 2021, 54-61. [3] B.H. Greijer, G.A. Seisenbaeva, V.G. Kessler et al., Dalton Trans., 2022, 51, 9511-9521. [4] P. Agback, G.A. Seisenbaeva, V.G. Kessler et al., Nanoscale Adv., 2022, 4, 1527-1532. [5] A. Nefedova, G.A. Seisenbaeva, V.G. Kessler et al., Inorg. Chem. (to be accepted). Funding/ Acknowledgement The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) grants 2022-03971_VR, 2018-03811_VR.
Vadim Kessler
Scientific Committee Member
