Biomolecular Interactions and Biological Responses of Emerging Two-Dimensional Materials and Aromatic Amino Acid Complexes

Abstract

The present work experimentally investigates the interaction of aromatic amino acids viz., tyrosine, tryptophan, and phenylalnine with novel two-dimensional (2D) materials including graphene, graphene oxide (GO), and boron nitride (BN).Photoluminescence, micro-Raman spectroscopy, and cyclic voltammetry were employed to investigate the nature of interactions and possible charge transfer between 2D materials and amino acids. Graphene and GO were found to interact strongly with aromatic amino acids through π−π stacking, charge transfer, and H-bonding. Particularly, it was observed that both physi and chemisorption are prominent in the interactions of GO/graphene with phenylalanine and tryptophan while tyrosine exhibited strong chemisorption on graphene and GO. In contrast, BN exhibited little or no interactions, which could be attributed to localized π-electron clouds around N atoms in BN lattice. Lastly, the adsorption of amino acids on 2D materials was observed to considerably change their biological response in terms of reactive oxygen species generation. More importantly, these changes in the biological response followed the same trends observed in the physi and chemisorption measurements.

Contribution of engineered nanomaterials physicochemical properties to mast cell degranulation

“…All other ENMs used in the study: titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ), iron oxide (Fe 2 O 3 ), magnesium oxide (MgO), boron nitrite sizes ultrafine (BN-UF) and microfine (BN-MF), zinc oxide (ZnO), silica dioxide sizes 30 nm (SiO 2 -30) and 60 nm (SiO 2 -60), and copper oxide (CuO) were purchased from US Research Nanomaterials, Inc and stored as a dried powder at 4 °C until ready for assay preparation. Two-dimensional boron nitride (BN) was synthesized by chemical exfoliation of bulk BN (purchased from Graphene supermarket) using a Branson ultrasonic tip (1/8″ diameter, 250 W)5556. ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized using a polyol method through drop-wise addition of aqueous Zn acetate and poly-vinylpyrrolidone (PVP) at 100 °C57.…”

Adsorption of amino acids on graphene: assessment of current force fields

“…Indirect validations can be performed by comparing the binding preferences of amino acids on graphene with the corresponding observations from ab initio, simulations, and wet-laboratory studies. [45,71,[81][82][83][84][85] The binding preferences of the amino acids on graphene estimated in our study and that reported in the literature are summarized in Fig. 4.…”

Adsorption of Amino Acids on Graphene: Assessment of Current Force Fields

“…Indirect validations can be performed by comparing the binding preferences of amino acids on graphene with the corresponding observations from ab initio, simulations, and wet-laboratory studies. [45,71,[81][82][83][84][85] The binding preferences of the amino acids on graphene estimated in our study and that reported in the literature are summarized in Fig. 4.…”