Synthesis and physicochemical characterization of zinc-lactoferrin complexes

One trend of the modern world is the search for new biologically active substances based on renewable resources. Milk proteins can be a solution for such purposes as they have been known for a long time as compounds that can be used for the manufacturing of multiple food and non-food products. Thus, the goal of the work was to investigate the parameters of Znbovine lactoferrin (bLTF) interactions, which enables the synthesis of Zn-rich protein complexes. Zinc-bLTF complexes can be used as food additives or wound -healing agents. Methodology of the study included bLTF characterization by sodium dodecyl sulfate-PAGE, MALDI-TOF, and MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry as well Zn-bLTF interactions by attenuated total reflection-Fourier-transform infrared, Raman spectroscopy, scanning and transmission microscopy, and zeta potential measurements. The obtained results revealed that the factors that affect Zn-bLTF interactions most significantly were found to be pH and ionic strength of the solution and, in particular, the concentration of Zn2+. These findings imply that these factors should be considered when aiming at the synthesis of Zn-bLTF metallocomplexes.

Automated summary

One trend in the modern world is the search for biologically active substances based on renewable resources. Milk proteins can be a solution for this, as they have long been known as compounds that can be used to manufacture various food and non-food products. This study aimed to investigate the parameters of Zn-bovine lactoferrin (bLTF) interactions and the synthesis of Zn-rich protein complexes. The results showed that the pH, ionic strength, and concentration of Zn2+ significantly affected the Zn-bLTF interactions.