Advances in preparation, interaction and stimulus responsiveness of protein-based nanodelivery systems

Abstract

The improved understanding of the connection between diet and health has led to growing interest in the development of functional foods designed to improve health and wellbeing. Many of the potentially health-promoting bioactive ingredients that food manufacturers would like to incorporate into these products are difficult to utilize because of their chemical instability, poor solubility, or low bioavailability. For this reason, nano-based delivery systems are being developed to overcome these problems. Food proteins possess many functional attributes that make them suitable for formulating various kinds of nanocarriers, including their surface activity, water binding, structuring, emulsification, gelation, and foaming, as well as their nutritional aspects. Proteins-based nanocarriers are therefore useful for introducing bioactive ingredients into functional foods, especially for their targeted delivery in specific applications.This review focusses on the preparation, properties, and applications of protein-based nanocarriers, such as nanoparticles, micelles, nanocages, nanoemulsions, and nanogels. In particular, we focus on the development and application of stimulus-responsive protein-based nanocarriers, which can be used to release bioactive ingredients in response to specific environmental triggers. Finally, we discuss the potential and future challenges in the design and application of these protein-based nanocarriers in the food industry.

Keywords:

• Protein
• interaction
• delivery systems
• stimulus-responsive
• nanocapsules

Disclosure statement

No conflicts of interest are declared for any of the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2020YFC1606804), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20201342), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (JUSRP121006) and National First-class Discipline Program of Food Science and Technology (JUFSTR20180203).