Combinatorial Approach to Determine Soybean Peroxidase Interaction with Carbon Nanotubes

The interfacing of nanomaterials with biological molecules has led to new applications in diagnostics, drug delivery, and biosensors. Recent research has shown how to prepare biological molecule-nanomaterial conjugates through direct immobilization; however, few have described the influence of the nanomaterial on the structure and function of the interfaced protein. In this study Swiss PDB Viewer (Deep View) was used to examine protein-nanomaterial interaction, namely to observe the behavior of the model enzyme soybean peroxidase (SBP) at the interface with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). The nanosuppports were chosen for their broad applications and their high surface-volume ratio, which allow for high enzyme loading and ease of recovery and reusability of the conjugates. The molecular modeling application helped analyze protein structural alignments and compare active sites on multiple proteins simultaneously, both before and after nanosupport immobilization. Complementary experimental approaches were performed to study the catalytic behavior of the SBP at the MWNT nanointerface. Understanding the structure-function relationship for such conjugates allow for the assembly of bioconstructs for use in applications where biocompatibility between inorganic nanomaterials and biological molecules is essential.