Perspectives of Infrared Spectroscopy in Quantitative Estimation of Proteins

Background: Infrared (IR) spectroscopy is a well-established technique for the structural elucidation of simple as well complex molecules. It has wide applications in the qualitative as well as quantitative determination of proteins in different samples. It provides a clear picture of the primary, secondary, or tertiary structure of a protein. Infrared radiations are used to assess different vibrational modes arise from variations in the structural components of a protein. Methods: Various research reports were collected from search engines like Sciencedirect, Pubmed, Researchgate and Google Scholar. These were further studied thoroughly and important findings/data were compiled and represented with the help of tables and figures. The procured data which includes band width, frequency and intensity has been employed to elucidate the structure of a protein. Results: It was found from various reports that fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) has been widely utilized for prediction of secondary structure of protein in the past few years. FTIR has the ability to trace out various structural modifications in the protein structure which arise due to interactions with other materials. It is also evident it can be utilized to quantify the proteins in variety of samples. Conclusion: The present review describes the basic principle and the instrumentation of IR spectroscopy along with its advancements. Beyond this, various applications of this technique in determination of protein structure and quantification in different materials such as foods stuffs, biotechnological products and biological fluids have also been summarized.