Anthocyanins are very spectacular plant pigments with many biological activities. However, because of their
highly reactive nature, anthocyanins are unstable. We developed a novel strategy for improving the thermal stability
and photostability of cyanidin-3-O-glucoside (C3G) molecules by encapsulating themwithin the inner cavity
of apo recombinant soybean seed H-2 subunit ferritin (rH-2). C3G molecules were successfully encapsulated
within protein cages with a C3G/protein ratio of 37.5 to 1. As expected, such encapsulation increased the thermal
stability and photostability of C3G molecules by a factor of ~2. More importantly, Caco-2 cell monolayer absorption
and adhesion analyses showed that C3G molecules encapsulated within apoferritin nanocages were more
efficient in transport as compared to free C3G. These findings indicate that protein with a shell-like structure
as a nanoplatform can play an important role in the field of nutrition.