Aggregated Gas Molecules: Toxic to Protein?

Abstract

The biological toxicity of high levels of breathing gases has been known for centuries, but the mechanism remains elusive. Earlier work mainly focused on the influences of dispersed gas molecules dissolved in water on biomolecules. However, recent studies confirmed the existence of aggregated gas molecules at the water-solid interface. In this paper, we have investigated the binding preference of aggregated gas molecules on proteins with molecular dynamics simulations, using nitrogen (N2) gas and the Src-homology 3 (SH3) domain as the model system. Aggregated N2 molecules were strongly bound by the active sites of the SH3 domain, which could impair the activity of the protein. In contrast, dispersed N2 molecules did not specifically interact with the SH3 domain. These observations extend our understanding of the possible toxicity of aggregates of gas molecules in the function of proteins.

Initial growth dynamics of 10 nm nanobubbles in the graphene liquid cell

“…The gaseous bubbles in a liquid have been used in broad such as the controlling of protein conformations (Liu et al 2005;Zhou et al 2004;Zhang et al 2013;Okumura and Itoh 2014), the drug delivery studies (Lukianova-Hleb et al 2012;Li et al 2015;Hernandez et al 2017), the direct transfer of large-size graphene films with decreased defects (Gao et al 2014;Guo et al 2018), and the performance of chemical mechanical polishing (Tsai et al 2007;Zhang et al 2016aZhang et al , b, 2018. For example, a sudden formation of nitrogen nanobubbles might induce the unfolding of protein in our body and has been associated with the origin of 'Diver's disease' .…”

Hidden Nanobubbles in Undersaturated Liquids

“…The existence of surface nanobubbles , was first put forward by Parker et al in 1994 to interpret the long-range attractive force observed between two neighboring hydrophobic substrates immersed in aqueous solution . Since 2000, the nanobubbles on various substrates have been observed directly or indirectly by many experimental techniques, particularly using atomic force microscopy (AFM). − The surface nanobubbles observed on the fluid–solid interface as well as the bulk nanobubbles , detected in the bulk solutions have diverse potential applications including flotation, interfacial slippage in microfluidics, , ultrasound cavitation, , and biomolecular adsorption. , Thus, the preparation methods − and the properties − of nanobubbles and other related stable gaseous states (e.g., micropancakes − ) have been investigated widely.…”

Exploring the Effects on Lipid Bilayer Induced by Noble Gases via Molecular Dynamics Simulations

“…The mechanisms of general anesthesia are divided into membrane and protein hypotheses 5 6 7 8 . According to the membrane mechanism, the entering of anesthetic in membrane leads to the change of the physical properties of membrane (such as lipid order and lateral pressure), which further affects the function of ion channels embedded within the membrane, and may finally cause general anesthesia 9 10 11 .…”