用于超声造影的微囊藻气囊提取新方法

A new method for isolating gas vesicles from Microcystis for ultrasound contrast

摘要:

气囊是一种由蛋白质外壳包裹气体形成的纳米级细胞结构,常见于蓝藻和嗜盐古菌中。气囊中包含的气体在超声波作用下,能够散射声波并产生谐波信号而增强信噪比,具备成为新型超声造影剂的潜质。但目前提取气囊的方法主要是传统的高渗裂解法,该操作过程烦琐、得率低,不适用于气囊的大规模提取。针对这些技术瓶颈,文中建立了一种快速、高效的微囊藻气囊分离方法,称为H₂O₂法。较传统的高渗裂解法该方法可将气囊的得率提升3倍以上,提取气囊的时间从24 h缩短为7 h。H₂O₂法不仅适用于实验室培养的微囊藻中气囊的提取,同时适用于提取含有胶鞘壁的野外群体微囊藻的气囊。用H₂O₂法提取的气囊表现出良好的超声造影特性。总之,该技术以其高效性和广谱性展现出较好的工业生产潜力,为开发气囊作为生物合成的超声造影剂提供了技术支持。

Abstract:

Gas vesicles are a unique class of gas-filled protein nanostructures which are commonly found in cyanobacteria and Halobacterium.The gas vesicles may scatter sound waves and generate harmonic signals,which enabled them to have the potential to become a novel ultrasound contrast agent.However,the current hypertonic cracking method for isolating gas vesicles contains tedious operational procedures and is of low yield,thus not suitable for large-scale application.To overcome these technical challenges,we developed a rapid and efficient method for isolating gas vesicles from Microcystis. The new H₂O₂-based method increased the yield by three times and shortened the operation time from 24 hours to 7 hours.The H₂O₂method is not only suitable for isolation of gas vesicles from laboratory-cultured Microcystis,but also suitable for colonial Microcystis covered with gelatinous sheath. The gas vesicles isolated by H₂O₂ method showed good performance in ultrasound contrast imaging.In conclusion,this new method shows great potential for large-scale application due to its high efficiency and wide adaptability,and provides technical support for developing gas vesicles into a biosynthetic ultrasonic contrast agent.