A magnetic multi-enzyme nanoplatform for high-purity collagen preparation through efficient contaminant protein elimination

The widespread application of collagen in biomedical and tissue engineering is significantly constrained by the co-extraction of non-collagenous proteins during isolation, which compromises its functional integrity and safety profile. Conventional purification techniques are frequently characterized by inefficiency and operational complexity. To overcome these limitations, we developed MagMEN, a magnetic multi-enzyme purification platform integrating magnetic trypsin, pepsin, bromelain, and papain. MagMEN demonstrates exceptional stability under diverse challenging conditions, maintaining robust performance across a broad pH spectrum and in the presence of organic solvents. The platform facilitates convenient magnetic separation and exhibits outstanding reusability, retaining 89.18% ± 3.48% of its initial enzymatic activity after ten consecutive cycles. Moreover, it achieves a collagen purification efficiency of 93.42% ± 0.66%, selectively degrading contaminant proteins while preserving the native triple-helical structure of collagen. The successful implementation of MagMEN for the preparation of high-purity collagen establishes an efficient, safe, and sustainable purification strategy, though its application in the scalable production of collagen warrants further investigation.