Oyster (Crassostrea gigas) ferritin can efficiently reduce the damage of Pb2+in vivo by electrostatic attraction

Heavy metal ions pollution can cause damage to human body through food, so the development of a new kind of macromolecular that can remove heavy metal ions damage has a good application prospect. The possibilities of removing heavy metal ions from food system with ferritin were studied in this paper. In this study, oyster ferritin (GF1) can resistant to denaturation induced by Pb2+, Cd2+, Cr3+ and still maintains its basic structure. GF1 can bind more Pb2+, Cd2+, Cr3+ than recombinant human H-chain ferritin (rHuHF), especially Pb2+, and the findings suggest that each GF1 can capture about 51.42 Pb2+ in solution. The hard and soft acids and base also verifies that Pb2+ have stronger binding ability to the key amino acids at the outer end of the three-fold symmetry channel. Cells preprotected by ferritin could resistant to heavy metal ions. And GF1 can reduce the high blood lead in mice and may play a role in alleviating lead poisoning in vivo. All findings demonstrated that GF1 can be used as a novel macromolecule to bind heavy metal ions, and the study can broaden the research scope of ferritin in contaminated food systems. [Display omitted] •Oyster ferritin can maintain certain structural and physiological activities upon treatment with Pb2+, Cd2+ and Cr3+.•Oyster ferritin can bind more Pb2+ than recombination human heavy chain ferritin.•Oyster ferritin can significantly reduced blood lead levels in mice.