Discrimination of Proteins Using an Array of Surfactant-Stabilized Gold Nanoparticles

Abstract

Protein analysis is a fundamental aspect of biochemical research. Gold nanoparticles are an emerging platform for various biological applications given their high surface area, biocompatibility, and unique optical properties. The colorimetric properties of gold nanoparticles make them ideal for point-of-care diagnostics. Different aspects of gold nanoparticle-protein interactions have been investigated to predict the effect of protein adsorption on colloidal stability, but the role of surfactants is often overlooked, despite their potential to alter both protein and nanoparticle properties. Herein we present a method by which gold nanoparticles can be prepared in various surfactants and used for array-based quantification and identification of proteins. The exchange of surfactant not only changed the zeta potential of those gold nanoparticles but also drastically altered their aggregation response to five different proteins (bovine serum albumin, human serum albumin, immunoglobulin G, lysozyme, and hemoglobin) in a concentration-dependent manner. Finally, we demonstrate that varying surfactant concentration can be used to control assay sensitivity.

Reactive Oxygen Species-Based Nanomaterials for Cancer Therapy

“…Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are widely used in ROS-based tumor therapeutics due to their high stability, unique optical properties, and biosafety (Ashraf et al, 2016;Rogowski et al, 2016;Ding et al, 2020;Slesiona et al, 2020). AuNPs can be used as a redox catalyzer to enhance electron transfer of various electroactive biological species, thereby increasing lipid peroxidation and ROS levels, and ultimately inducing DNA double-strand breaks and cell apoptosis.…”

Array-Based Discriminative Optical Biosensors for Identifying Multiple Proteins in Aqueous Solution and Biofluids

“…Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have been extensively applied in biosensors because of their unique optical, catalytic, chemical and electronical properties, and these properties can be modulated by changing the shape, size, surface modification or aggregation state of AuNPs (Daniel and Astruc, 2004 ; Zhang et al, 2020 ). AuNPs are usually used to combine with DNA (Lu et al, 2013b ; Sun et al, 2015 ), fluorophores (You et al, 2007 ; Bajaj et al, 2009 ; Rana et al, 2012 ), enzymes (Miranda et al, 2010 ), or surfactants (Rogowski et al, 2016 ; Xi et al, 2018 ) to construct non-specific protein sensor arrays.…”

“…Surfactants used in this strategy have the following advantages: (1) they can change the zeta potential of AuNPs; (2) they can act as protein receptors; and (3) they can adjust the protein-induced aggregation of AuNPs. Using a very simple washing procedure, Rogowski et al ( 2016 ) prepared three stable AuNPs in cationic cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), non-ionic Tween 20, and anionic sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) to fabricate a colorimetric sensor array for differentiating five proteins. The three types of surfactants not only changed the zeta potential of AuNPs, but also modulated the adsorption-driven aggregation of AuNPs by proteins.…”

Multifaceted peptide assisted one-pot synthesis of gold nanoparticles for plectin-1 targeted gemcitabine delivery in pancreatic cancer

“…32–38 However, the interaction between thiols and GNPs is the most extensively studied. 39, 40 Natural thiols including cysteine (Cys) and reduced glutathione (GSH) as well as synthetic peptides with a cysteine residue have been widely used for stabilizing GNPs.…”