Influence of Solution Chemistry and Soft Protein Coronas on the Interactions of Silver Nanoparticles with Model Biological Membranes

Abstract

The influence of solution chemistry and soft protein coronas on the interactions between citrate-coated silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and model biological membranes was investigated by assembling supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) composed of zwitterionic 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) on silica crystal sensors in a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D). Our results show that the deposition rates of AgNPs on unmodified silica surfaces increased with increasing electrolyte concentrations under neutral pH conditions. Similar trends were observed when AgNPs were deposited on SLBs, hence indicating that the deposition of AgNPs on model cell membranes was controlled by electrostatic interactions. In the presence of human serum albumin (HSA) proteins at both pH 7 and pH 2, the colloidal stability of AgNPs was considerably enhanced due to the formation of HSA soft coronas surrounding the nanoparticles. At pH 7, the deposition of AgNPs on SLBs was suppressed in the presence of HSA due to steric repulsion between HSA-modified AgNPs and SLBs. In contrast, pronounced deposition of HSA-modified AgNPs on SLBs was observed at pH 2. This observation was attributed to the reduction of electrostatic repulsion as well as conformation changes of adsorbed HSA under low pH conditions, resulting in the decrease of steric repulsion between AgNPs and SLBs.

Probing the binding behavior and kinetics of silver nanoparticles with bovine serum albumin

“…When proteins cover the surface of the AgNPs, forming what is known as a biocorona, this decides the fate of the AgNPs in vivo. [8][9][10][11] Sharma and coworkers reviewed the effects of the coating on AgNPs on the fate, stability and toxicity of the AgNPs in aqueous solutions and biological systems. 12 It was shown that the key factors contributing to the fate and toxicity of AgNPs are the size, shape, surface coating, surface charge and conditions of silver ion release, which provide some new insight into understanding the biological impact of AgNPs on humans and organisms.…”

Probing the Interaction of Dielectric Nanoparticles with Supported Lipid Membrane Coatings on Nanoplasmonic Arrays

“…In these surface-based systems, nanostructured surfaces such as nanodisks and nanoholes may be utilized as underlying substrates, which have consequently prompted studies on the interaction between nanostructured surfaces and lipid bilayers [ 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 ]. Well-characterized bilayer coatings have been employed to study lipid bilayer interactions with biomacromolecules [ 79 , 80 , 81 ] as well as with native [ 82 , 83 , 84 ] and functionalized nanoparticles [ 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 ] with consideration of various parameters such as nanoparticle size as well as surface property variations (e.g., charge, hydrophobicity) of both the nanoparticles and lipid bilayers. On a related note, some of these studies have been conducted using advanced label-free optical sensing techniques such as optical waveguide spectroscopy [ 80 ] and waveguide total internal reflection microscopy [ 85 ].…”

Interactions Between Silver Nanoparticles/Silver Ions and Liposomes: Evaluation of the Potential Passive Diffusion of Silver and Effects of Speciation

“…Nevertheless, based on Le Bihan et al (2009), our AgNPs with a size less than or equal to 5 nm would not possess sufficient adhesion strength to cause invagination and could only adsorb to the surface of the liposomes. Moreover, considering the small amounts of silver found associated with the liposomes (on average 38.3 μmol Ag / g P, corrected for the residual amount of Ag), we can hypothesize that the invagination of silver nanoparticles is unlikely and that AgNPs only adsorbed to the surface of the liposomes, as has been shown by Wang et al (2016).…”