pharmaceutics

Article Collagenase Activity of Immobilized at Gold Nanoparticle Interfaces for Therapeutic Applications

Adrianne M. M. Brito 1, Vitor Oliveira 2 , Marcelo Y. Icimoto 2,* and Iseli L. Nantes-Cardoso 1,*

1 Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas, Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo André CEP 09210-580, SP, Brazil; [email protected] 2 Departamento de Biofísica, Escola Paulista de Medicina, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo CEP 04039-032, SP, Brazil; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] (M.Y.I.); [email protected] (I.L.N.-C.)

Abstract: Bromelain (Bro) is a multiprotein complex extracted from the plant Ananas comosus, composed of at least eight . Bro has a wide range of applications in medicine and industry, where the stability of its active proteases is always a major concern. The present study describes the improvement of stability and gain of specific activity in the enzymatic content of Bro immobilized on gold nanoparticles (GNPs). GNPs were synthesized in situ using Bro as the reducing and stabilizing agents and characterized by surface plasmon resonance and transmission electron microscopy. Consistent with the structural changes observed by circular dichroism analysis, the association with GNPs affected activity. The active Bro immobilized on GNPs (NanoBro)

 remained stable under storage and gained thermal stability consistent with a thermophilic enzyme.  Proteolytic assays were performed on type I membranes using fluorescence spectroscopy

Citation: Brito, A.M.M.; Oliveira, V.; of O-phthaldialdehyde (OPA), changes in the membrane superficial structure, and topography by Icimoto, M.Y.; Nantes-Cardoso, I.L. scanning electron microscopy, FTIR, and scanning laser confocal microscopy. Another characteristic Collagenase Activity of Bromelain of the NanoBro observed was the significant increase in susceptibility to the inhibitory effect of E-64, Immobilized at Gold Nanoparticle indicating a gain in cysteine activity. The higher stability and specific activity of NanoBro Interfaces for Therapeutic contributed to the broadening and improvement of Bro applications. Applications. Pharmaceutics 2021, 13, 1143. https://doi.org/10.3390/ Keywords: bromelain; gold nanoparticles; collagen; nanotechnology; pharmaceutics13081143

Academic Editor: Carlos Alonso-Moreno 1. Introduction 1.1. Proteolytic Enzyme Received: 28 May 2021 Accepted: 5 July 2021 Several have been purified partially or completely for therapeutic, biotech- Published: 27 July 2021 nological, and industrial applications, and proteolytic enzymes are extensively used for these purposes [1]. Proteolytic enzymes catalyze the of peptide bonds in a Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral variety of biological processes. Proteases are classified according to the primary amino with regard to jurisdictional claims in acid residue acting on and are thus divided into nine classes: cysteine, serine, published maps and institutional affil- aspartic, metallo, glutamic, threonine, and asparagine proteases, as well as mixed and iations. unknown types [2]. Cysteine proteases (also called proteases) are present in all living organisms and share a common catalytic mechanism involving a nucleophilic cysteine in the catalytic unit, which is composed of a triad of amino acids. The first isolated and characterized cysteine protease was