DNA-coated microcrystals

Abstract

Coprecipitation leads to self-assembly of bioactive DNA on the surface of salt, sugar or amino-acid crystals and provides a rapid inexpensive immobilization method suitable for preparing dry-powder formulations of nucleic acids, useful for storage, imaging and drug delivery.

Bioprocessing of bacteriophages via rapid drying onto microcrystals

“…This simple method was found to be inadequate since the phage titers following reconstitution of the ϕ‐CMC had fallen ∼9 log 10 and ∼11 log 10 for the glutamine and glycine carriers, respectively (Table 1). At this stage, it was not appropriate to screen all 20 natural amino acids since the efficiency of the various carriers has been previously investigated 20‐22. Phage inactivation is known to occur upon exposure to water miscible organic solvents26 and is also likely to occur during adsorption induced unfolding of the phage protein coat at the carrier surface, discussed further below.…”

“…The particles can be isolated from the solvent by filtration or simple isothermal vacuum drying and so costly processes such as lyophilization can be avoided. The biomolecule retains its stability without further treatment and PCMC techniques have been successfully applied to biomolecules such as proteins,20 enzymes,21 DNA,22 and nanoparticles 23. Bacteriophages present unique challenges for the PCMC process on account of their complex self‐assembled structure and resultant lability.…”

Protein-coated nanoparticles embedded in films as delivery platforms

“…In recent years, investigations of enzyme immobilization in organic solvents have opened the door for the manufacture of particulate‐containing films with enhanced activity. Especially, the antisolvent co‐precipitation method has been shown to produce particles coated with a variety of biologicals including nucleic acids, proteins, enzymes and other particulate systems . However, most of these investigations led to particles in the range of 1–5 μm or higher.…”

Use of high activity enzyme preparations in neat organic solvents for organic synthesis

“…Kreiner et al, (2005) [57] extended the study of the performance of PCMC formulation in organic solvent to oxidoreductases: Horse liver alcohol dehydrogenases (HLADH), catalases and peroxidases from both soybean and horseradish. While PCMCs in general showed enhanced reaction rates, the highest increase of 50 times was reported for HLADH.…”

“…In case of HLADH, the coenzyme also precipitates along with PCMC formation. The storage and operational stabilities of PCMCs of CAL B and SC have also been described [57]. Transesterification activity assay was used in this work for evaluating all stabilities.…”