1.A.155.  The Globular Ferritin Nanopore Sensor (GFNS) Family  

Traditional barrel-shaped protein channels are preferred for constructing nanopore sensors, which may miss protein candidates in non-barrel structures. Yin et al. 2025 demonstrated that globular ferritin displays excellent membrane-insertion capacity and stable transmembrane ionic current owing to its hydrophobic four-fold channels were discovered as three-fold channels. The ionic current rectification and voltage-gating characteristics are found in single-ferritin ionic current measurement. Notably, the ferritin is used as a nanopore sensor, by which high resolution discrimination of L-cysteine, L-homocysteine, and cysteine-containing dipeptides with the assistance of equivalent Cu²⁺. The mechanistic studies by multiple controlled experiments and quantum mechanics/all-atom/coarse-grained multiscale MD simulations revealed that analytes are synergistically captured by His114, Cys126, and Glu130 within the C3 channel, causing the current blockage signals. The promising ferritin nanopore sensor provides a guide to discovering new protein nanopores without shape restrictions (Yin et al. 2025).  

Ferritin, a globular intracellular protein that acts as the main reservoir for iron, plays a role in malignancies that are associated with increased plasma ferritin concentrations. A number of studies show that tumor cells express high levels of transferrin receptors (TfR). Increased TfR expression was observed in prostate carcinoma. Apoferritin (APO) can be used as a protein nanotransporter into which a suitable medicinal substance can be encapsulated. Nanoparticles increase the permeability of tumor cells to nanotransporters and have a photothermal effect. Encapsulated doxorubicin (DOX) in APO and modification of the resulting APO/DOX with gold (AuNPs) and silver nanoparticles prepared by green synthesis increased its effectiveness (Čížek et al. 2019).  Chitosan nanotransporters of anthracycline antibiotics with a zinc modified surface, for a specific interaction with metallothionein, seems to also be effective (Skaličková et al. 2017).  The functionalization of gold nanoparticles on the surface of doxorubicin-encapsulated liposomes has been optimized (Choubdar et al. 2022Choubdar et al. 2022; Torres et al. 2025).