Niloofar Ayyari - Department of Nanobiotechnology, Faculty of Biological Science, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Zahra Vaezi - Department of Bioactive compounds, Faculty of Interdisciplinary Science and Technologies, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Hossein Naderi-Manesh - Department of Nanobiotechnology, Faculty of Biological Science, Tarbiat Modares University,Tehran, Iran.

Proteins have different applications such as drug delivery and the targeted protein transport into cells requires designing suitable carriers. One of the main challenge in this regard is maintaining protein structure and function after transporter binding. In this research, we have used the specific binding of nickel to the histidine sequence of proteins to transport specific proteins by porphysome nanocarrier. Porphysome nanocarriers are composed of porphyrin-lipids, in which porphyrins are located in between phospholipids together with fatty acid sequences. This results in a liposome-like structure that can be used for drug delivery. To design porphysome nanovesicles, we first synthesized a nickel-porphyrin complex and confirmed its formation using UV-Vis spectroscopy. We observed that soret porphyrin bond shifted from ۴۰۸ to ۴۰۴ nm, which indicates the binding of nickel to porphyrin. To position the nickel-porphyrin complex in a liposome, we added fatty acid sequence to porphyrin and confirmed it using HNMR. Porphysomes were developed through the thinfilmhydration technique and they prepared by mixing nickel-porphyrin and fatty acid together with phospholipid. This resulted in single layer spherical morphology with ۲۰۰ nm average size and -۲۰ mv Zeta potential. Finally, the binding of model protein to the system was evaluated using the CD method and the sample protein was specifically bound to porphysome while maintaining its function. The cell viability in the final system with a ۵۰۰ μm concentration is ۹۰%. Porphysome can be used as a biocompatible and stable drug transporter with a specific binding site for protein complexes.

Drug delivery, Ni-Porphyrin complex, Porphysome, Protein, Specific binding site