Investigating the effects of nanogels in promoting protein crystallization
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Govada, Lata
Wang, Beijia
Li, Yanmin
Saridakis, Emmanuel
Chayen, Naomi E
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
X-ray crystallography is still the most widely used and versatile method for structural studies of biological macromolecules. This study concerns the application of nanogels to facilitate protein crystallization, a prerequisite for X-ray crystallography. Nanogels (NGs) are nano-sized, highly crosslinked polymeric particles that have been extensively studied for chemical catalysis and drug delivery but not for protein crystal nucleation. The efficacy of six types of nanogels (three N-isopropylacrylamide-based and three acrylamide-based) was tested, with promising results. They were subsequently functionalised with active hydroxyl groups for further testing. Both functionalised and non-functionalised nanogels were tested on model (trypsin, thaumatin, proteinase K, ferritin and catalase) and target proteins (glulisine, α-crustacyanin and acriflavine resistance protein subunit AcrB) using both manual and automated techniques. All nanogels were found to be effective in promoting protein crystallization in both screening and optimization trials, giving crystal 'hits' that would have otherwise been missed. Overall, the functionalised nanogels were more effective. Nanogel effects are proposed to be due to a combination of surface porosity and surface chemistry.
Date Issued
2026-04-27
Date Acceptance
2026-04-22
Citation
International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2026, 27 (9)
ISSN
1661-6596
Publisher
MDPI AG
Journal / Book Title
International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Volume
27
Issue
9
Copyright Statement
©2026bytheauthors. Licensee MDPI,Basel,Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the termsand conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)license
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/42123465
PII: ijms27093879
Subjects
Crystallization
Crystallography, X-Ray
Nanogels
Proteins
crystallization phase diagram
macromolecular crystals
nanogels
nucleating agents
nucleation
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
Switzerland
Article Number
3879
Date Publish Online
2026-04-27