Highly Surface-Active Chaperonin Nanobarrels for Oil-in-Water Pickering Emulsions and Delivery of Lipophilic Compounds

Stabilization of Pickering emulsions via particles of biological origin exhibits a great potential to be widely applied in food, cosmetic, or biomedicine formulation because of their excellent biocompatibility, biodegradability, and functional properties. This paper describes the successful development of a bioderived GroEL protein nanobarrel as a Pickering stabilizer and its protective properties on beta-carotene in dispersed oil phase, as a model of labile bioactive compounds. It is shown that the GroEL nanobarrel is highly surface-active and allows the formation of Pickering emulsion by physical adsorption at the oil/water interface. The optimized formulation for generating a stable submicron oil droplet by ultrasonication includes a GroEL concentration of 0.05-0.45 wt % with an oil/water volume ratio of 0.05-0.35. The as-prepared Pickering emulsion shows pH-responsive emulsification/demulsification transition and excellent stability at temperatures less than 65 degrees C and ionic strength (with NaCl addition) up to 500 mM. Meanwhile, the emulsion tends to form a gel-like network structure with the oil/ water ratio increasing. Finally, we demonstrate that possible factors of oxidant, reducing agent, UV radiation, and sucrose have sequentially decreasing to no effect on the stability of beta-carotene encapsulated in GroEL-stabilized Pickering emulsion and that higher GroEL concentration can significantly reduce beta-carotene degradation rate, thus ensuring more efficient long-term storage. We believe that the emulsion system supported by the GroEL nanobarrel could be developed to a viable tool for delivering lipophilic bioactive compounds.