Understanding the Robust Physisorption between Bovine Serum Albumin and Amphiphilic Polymer Coated Nanoparticles

Abstract

The robust physisorption between nanoparticles (NPs) and proteins has attracted increasing attention due to the significance for both conjugation techniques and protein's corona formation at the bionano interface. In the present study, we first explored the possible binding sites of the bovine serum albumin (BSA) on amphiphilic polymer coated gold nanoparticles (AP-AuNPs). By using mass spectrometry, a 105-amino-acid peptide (12.2 kDa) is discovered as the possible "epitope" responsible for the robust physisorption between BSA and AP-AuNPs. Second, with the help of nanometal surface energy transfer (NSET) theory, we further found that the epitope peptide could insert at least 2.9 nm into the organic molecular layers of AP-AuNPs when the robust conjugates formed, which indicates how such a long epitope peptide can be accommodated by AP-AuNPs and resist protease's digestion. These findings might shed light on a new strategy for studying interactions between proteins and NPs, and further guide the rational design of NPs for safe and effective biomedical applications.

Surface modification of polymer nanoparticles with native albumin for enhancing drug delivery to solid tumors

“…To test this hypothesis, we chose endothelial cells with different gp60 expression levels: HUVEC as a gp60-positive (gp60 + ) [48, 49] and hCMEC/D3 as a gp60-negative (gp60 − ) cell line [50–52]. FITC-BSA with 76% sequence homology to HSA [53] bound to HUVEC more than hCMEC/D3 cells, and its binding to HUVEC was competitively inhibited by HSA (Fig. S4).…”

Study on physisorption between G‐actin and amphiphilic polymer‐coated gold nanoparticles

“…3This synthesis was also according to a previous published protocol . Briefly, 2.7 g (15 mmol) dodecylamine powder was dissolved in 100 mL THF.…”

“…Bio‐nano physisorption (BNP) has attracted much attention recently due to the following three reasons: (i) biomolecules are the most elementary units for life; (ii) nanotechnology is currently considered a most promising technology; (iii) most interactions between biomolecules and nanomaterials/nanostructures could be classified as physisorption. For example, protein corona on nanoparticles (NPs) has become a new key word for searching related literature, and NPs are not only used to inhibit bioactivities such as enzyme catalyzing, but also sometimes could act as an enhancer to improve single molecular polymerase chain reaction (PCR) efficiency and the rate of protein fibrillation, which is related to serious diseases like Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) and so on.…”

“…Moreover, the interactions between AuNPs and biomolecules also facilitate research into nonfouling, nonspecific binding, and bioconjugation. Previously, protein coronas on AuNPs with different surface modifications have been studied quantitatively, and our group subsequently reported how the physisorption mediates the formation of robust discrete protein–AuNP conjugates: the AP plays an important role . AP coating has been considered as a universal approach to synthesize and stabilize NPs for a wide biomedical applications .…”

“…AP coating has been considered as a universal approach to synthesize and stabilize NPs for a wide biomedical applications . After AP coating, AP–AuNPs normally can be used as model NPs with a monodispersed size distribution, and are ready for bioconjugation with robust stabilities, in addition to the above‐mentioned properties.…”