From Acid Activation Mechanisms of Proton Conduction to Design of Inhibitors of the M2 Proton Channel of Influenza A Virus

With an estimated 1 billion people affected across the globe, influenza is one of the most serious health concerns worldwide. Therapeutic treatments have encompassed a number of key functional viral proteins, mainly focused on the M2 proton channel and neuraminidase. This review highlights the efforts spent in targeting the M2 proton channel, which mediates the proton transport toward the interior of the viral particle as a preliminary step leading to the release of the fusion peptide in hemagglutinin and the fusion of the viral and endosomal membranes. Besides the structural and mechanistic aspects of the M2 proton channel, attention is paid to the challenges posed by the development of efficient small molecule inhibitors and the evolution toward novel ligands and scaffolds motivated by the emergence of resistant strains.

Proton transport over nanoparticle surface in insulating nanoparticle film-based humidity sensor

We study a proton transport on the surface of insulating nanoparticles for humidity sensors. We use the approach to reveal proton transfer mechanisms in humidity sensitive materials. Hydrophilic and hydrophobic ligand-terminated silica nanoparticle films are adopted for evaluating temperature dependence of the ion conductivity. According to the activation energy of the conductivity, we explain the Grotthuss (H+ transfer) and vehicular (H3O+ transfer) mechanisms are mainly dominant on hydrophilic (-OH terminated) and hydrophobic (acrylate terminated) surface of nanoparticles, respectively. This investigation gives us a clue to understand a proton transfer mechanism in solution-processed humidity-sensitive materials such as oxide nanomaterials.

Anhydrous Grotthuss mechanism for fast proton transport in a dense oxide-ion array of α-MoO3

Developing high-power battery chemistry is an urgent task to buffer fluctuating renewable energies and achieve a sustainable and flexible power supply. Owing to the small size of proton and its ultrahigh mobility in water via the Grotthuss mechanism, aqueous proton batteries are an attractive candidate for high-power energy storage devices. Although Grotthuss proton transfer usually occurs in hydrogen-bonded networks of water molecules, in this work, we discover anhydrous Grotthuss-type proton transport in a dense oxide-ion array of solid α-MoO3 even without structural water. The fast proton transfer and accumulation that occurs during (de)intercalation in α-MoO3 is unveiled using both experiments and first-principles calculations. Coupled with a zinc anode and a superconcentrated dual-ion Zn2+/H+ electrolyte, the solid-state anhydrous Grotthuss proton transport mechanism realizes an aqueous MoO3-Zn battery with both high energy and power densities.

Engineering the Catalytic Properties of Two-Domain Laccase from Streptomyces griseoflavus Ac-993

Laccases catalyze the oxidation of substrates with the concomitant reduction of oxygen to water. Recently, we found that polar residues located in tunnels leading to Cu2 and Cu3 ions control oxygen entrance (His 165) and proton transport (Arg 240) of two-domain laccase (2D) from Streptomyces griseoflavus (SgfSL). In this work, we have focused on optimizing the substrate-binding pocket (SBP) of SgfSL while simultaneously adjusting the oxygen reduction process. SgfSL variants with three single (Met199Ala, Met199Gly, and Tyr230Ala) and three double amino acid residues substitutions (Met199Gly/His165Ala, His165Ala/Arg240His, Met199Gly/Arg240His) were constructed, purified, and investigated. Combination of substitutions in the SBP and in the tunnel leading to Cu2 ion (Met199Gly/Arg240His) increased SgfSL catalytic activity towards ABTS by 5-fold, and towards 2.6-DMP by 16-fold. The high activity of the Met199Gly/Arg240His variant can be explained by the combined effect of the SBP geometry optimization (Met199Gly) and increased proton flux via the tunnel leading to Cu2 ion (Arg240His). Moreover, the variant with Met199Gly and His165Ala mutations did not significantly increase SgfSL’s activity, but led to a drastic shift in the optimal pH of 2.6-DMP oxidation. These results indicate that His 165 not only regulates oxygen access, but it also participates in proton transport in 2D laccases.