PROSCA: an online platform for humanized scaffold mining facilitating rational protein engineering.

Protein scaffolds with small size, high stability and low immunogenicity show important applications in the field of protein engineering and design. However, no relevant computational platform has been reported yet to mining such scaffolds with the desired properties from massive protein structures in human body. Here, we developed PROSCA, a structure-based online platform dedicated to explore the space of the entire human proteome, and to discovery new privileged protein scaffolds with potential engineering value that have never been noticed. PROSCA accepts structure of protein as an input, which can be subsequently aligned with a certain class of protein structures (e.g. the human proteome either from experientially resolved or AlphaFold2 predicted structures, and the human proteins belonging to specific families or domains), and outputs humanized protein scaffolds which are structurally similar with the input protein as well as other related important information such as families, sequences, structures and expression level in human tissues. Through PROSCA, the user can also get excellent experience in visualizations of protein structures and expression overviews, and download the figures and tables of results which can be customized according to the user's needs. Along with the advanced protein engineering and selection technologies, PROSCA will facilitate the rational design of new functional proteins with privileged scaffolds. PROSCA is freely available at https://idrblab.org/prosca/.

Step-scheme CsPbBr3/BiOBr photocatalyst with oxygen vacancies for efficient CO2 photoreduction.

Metal halide perovskites with suitable energy band structures and excellent visible-light responses have emerged as promising photocatalysts for CO2 reduction to valuable chemicals and fuels. However, the efficiency of CO2 photocatalytic reduction often suffers from inefficient separation and sluggish transfer. Herein, a step-scheme (S-scheme) CsPbBr3/BiOBr photocatalyst with oxygen vacancies possessing intimate interfacial contact was fabricated by anchoring CsPbBr3 QDs on BiOBr-Ov nanosheets using a mild anti-precipitation method. The results showed that CsPbBr3/BiOBr-Ov-2 with an internal electric field (IEF) heterojunction exhibited a boosted evolution rate of 27.4 µmol g-1 h-1 (CO: 23.8 µmol g-1 h-1 and CH4: 3.6 µmol g-1 h-1) with an electron consumption rate (Relectron) of 76.4 µmol g-1 h-1, which was 5.9 and 3.2 times that of single CsPbBr3 and BiOBr-Ov, respectively. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations revealed that BiOBr with oxygen vacancies can effectively enhance the adsorption and activation of CO2 molecules. More importantly, in situ infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) spectra show the transformation process of the surface species, while the femtosecond transient absorption spectrum (fs-TA) reveals the charge transfer kinetics of the CsPbBr3/BiOBr-Ov. Overall, this work provides some guidance for the rational design of S-scheme heterojunctions and vacancy-engineered photocatalysts, which are expected to have potential applications in the fields of photocatalysis and solar energy conversion.

Stability of Multivalent Ruthenium on CoWO4 Nanosheets for Improved Electrochemical Water Splitting with Alkaline Electrolyte.

Engineering low-cost electrocatalysts with desired features is vital to decrease the energy consumption but challenging for superior water splitting. Herein, we development a facile strategy by the addition of multivalence ruthenium (Ru) into the CoWO4/CC system. During the synthesis process, the most of Ru3+ ions were insinuated into the lattice of CoWO4, while the residual Ru3+ ions were reduced to metallic Ru and further attached to the interface between carbon cloth and CoWO4 sheets. The optimal Ru2(M)-CoWO4/CC exhibited superior performance for the HER with an overpotential of 85 mV@10 mA cm-2, which was much better than most of reported electrocatalysts, regarding OER, a low overpotential of 240 mV@10 mA cm-2 was sufficient. In comparison to Ru2(0)-CoWO4/CC with the same Ru mass loading, multivalence Ru2(M)-CoWO4/CC required a lower overpotential for OER and HER, respectively. The Ru2(M)-CoWO4/CC couple showed excellent overall water splitting performance at a cell voltage of 1.48 V@10 mA cm-2 for used as both anodic and cathodic electrocatalysts. Results of the study showed that the electrocatalytic activity of Ru2(M)-CoWO4/CC was attributed to the in-situ transformation of Ru/Co sites, the multivalent Ru ions and the synergistic effect of different metal species stimulated the intrinsic activity of CoWO4/CC.

Characterization and humanization of VNARs targeting human serum albumin from the whitespotted bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium plagiosum).

The Shark-derived immunoglobulin new antigen receptors (IgNARs) have gained increasing attention for their high solubility, exceptional thermal stability, and intricate sequence variation. In this study, we immunized whitespotted bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium plagiosum) to create phage display library of variable domains of IgNAR (VNARs) for screening against Human Serum Albumin (HSA), a versatile vehicle in circulation due to its long in vivo half-life. We identified two HSA-binding VNAR clones, 2G5 and 2G6, and enhanced their expression in E. coli with the FKPA chaperone. 2G6 exhibited a strong binding affinity of 13 nM with HSA and an EC50 of 1 nM. In vivo study with a murine model further provided initial validation of 2G6's ability to prolong circulation time by binding to HSA. Additionally, we employed computational molecular docking to predict the binding affinities of both 2G6 and its humanized derivative, H2G6, to HSA. Our analysis unveiled that the complementarity-determining regions (CDR1 and CDR3) are pivotal in the antigen recognition process. Therefore, our study has advanced the understanding of the potential applications of VNARs in biomedical research aimed at extending drug half-life, holding promise for future therapeutic and diagnostic progressions.