Transglutaminase-mediated macromolecular assembly: production of conjugates for food and pharmaceutical applications

Abstract

Various strategies have been explored in the last 20 years to modify the functional properties of proteins and, among these, protein/polymer conjugation resulted one of the most successful approaches. Thus, the surface modification of polypeptides of potential industrial interest by covalent attachment of different macromolecules is nowadays regarded as an extremely valuable technique to manipulate protein activities. Protein derivatives with a number of either natural or synthetic polymers, like different polysaccharides or polyethylene glycol, have been obtained by both chemical and enzymatic treatments, and in this context, the crosslinking enzyme transglutaminase is attracting an increasing attention as a simple and safe means for protein processing in vitro. In this short review, we summarized the most significant experimental findings demonstrating that a microbial form of the enzyme is an effective tool to obtain several biopolymer-based conjugates potentially useful for both food and pharmaceutical applications.

Transglutamination allows production and characterization of native‐sized ELPylated spider silk proteins from transgenic plants

“…It could be assumed that the high E modulus of the Q/K‐MaSp1‐100xELP layer is caused by a significant degree of cross‐linking. Transglutaminase‐catalyzed cross‐links of proteins causes an increase in tensile strength and elongation to break of films as well as these cross‐links decreased the film permeability (Mariniello et al ., ). Further investigations are necessary to confirm our results by achieving a higher degree of cross‐linking, e.g.…”

Food‐Grade Covalent Complexes and Their Application as Nutraceutical Delivery Systems: A Review

“…Nonenzymatic approaches include the Maillard reaction (Oliveira and others ), free radical grafting (Curcio and others ), alkaline treatment (Kroll and others ), and the carbodiimide‐mediated coupling reaction (Pasanphan and Chirachanchai ). Enzymatic approaches are based on the utilization of specific cross‐linking enzymes, such as transglutaminase, laccase, tyrosinase, lipoxygenase, polyphenol oxidase, and peroxidase (Payne and others ; Mariniello and others ; Zeeb and others ). Table provides an overview of the most commonly utilized methods for forming food‐grade conjugates.…”

Microbial Transglutaminase is Beneficial to Food Industries but a Caveat to Public Health

“…Based on its fundamental features and its wider enzymatic activity, it represent a prime candidate, extensively used by multiple and constantly developing industries. The tissue engineering, textile, leather, biomedical diagnostic, labeling, biotechnological, pharmaceutical, food processing and nutraceutical industries [6,8,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22].…”