Abstract
Compared with other nanocarriers such as liposomes, mesoporous silica, and cyclodextrin, ferritin as a typical protein nanocage has received considerable attention in the field of food, nutrition, and medicine owing to its inherent cavity size, excellent water solubility, and biocompatibility. Additionally, ferritin nanocage also serves as a versatile bio-template for the synthesis of a variety of nanoparticles. Recently, scientists have explored the ferritin nanocage structure for encapsulation and delivery of guest molecules such as nutrients, bioactive molecules, anticancer drugs, and mineral metal ions by taking advantage of its unique reversible disassembly and reassembly property and biomineralization. In this review, we mainly focus on the preparation and structure of ferritin-based nanocarriers, and regulation of their self-assembly. Moreover, the recent advances of their applications in food nutrient delivery and medical diagnostics are highlighted. Finally, the main challenges and future development in ferritin-directed nanoparticles’ synthesis and multifunctional applications are discussed.
Highlights
With the development of nanotechnology and material science, nanosized materials with high stability and efficient cell permeability have been widely used in encapsulation and delivery system, including liposomes, micelles, block copolymers, carbon nanotubes, dendrimers, oligosaccharides, and protein cages [1]
Phytoferritin is observed in plastids, and the gene expression is regulated at the transcriptional level, while animal ferritin is mainly present in the cytoplasm of cell, and the expression is strictly controlled by the interaction of iron response elements and iron regulatory proteins, which belongs to the transcription level [37,38]
This review focuses on the preparation of ferritin-hybrid nanoparticles and their applications in the food, nutrition, and medicine industries
Summary
With the development of nanotechnology and material science, nanosized materials with high stability and efficient cell permeability have been widely used in encapsulation and delivery system, including liposomes, micelles, block copolymers, carbon nanotubes, dendrimers, oligosaccharides, and protein cages [1]. Ferritin has several advantages: (1) it can be produced economically in Escherichia coli and can be purified by exploiting its heat-proof property [11]; (2) it exists naturally in the human body and is composed of nontoxic elements that would not elicit strong nonself antibody and/or T cell immune responses [12]; (3) ferritin cage is disassociated into subunits at extremely acid/alkaline pH (≤2.0 or ≥11.0) and resulting subunits can reconstitute into a cage-like structure at neutral conditions, and by taking advantage of this feature, guest molecules can be and effectively encapsulated into the ferritin cavity [13,14]; (4) ferritin has a ferroxidase site or nucleation site, which can bind iron ions and other metal ions [15]; and (5) it can be functionally modified by genetic and/or chemical coupling [16]. But not least, we discussed the current challenges and future efforts in developing ferritin-based nanoparticles for multifunctional applications
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