Measuring protein structure and stability of protein-nanoparticle systems with synchrotron radiation circular dichroism.

Laera, Stefania; Ceccone, Giacomo; Rossi, Francois; Gilliland, Douglas; Hussain, Rohanah; Siligardi, Giuliano; Calzolai, Luigi · Nano Lett · 2011

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

We measure the structural and stability changes of proteins at nanomolar concentration upon interaction with nanoparticles. Using synchrotron radiation circular dichroism (SRCD), we measure a decrease of 6 °C in the thermal unfolding of human serum albumin upon interaction with silver nanoparticles while this does not happen with gold. The use of SRCD allows measuring critical parameters on protein-nanoparticle interactions, and it will provide experimental data on the relative stability of key biological proteins for nanotoxicology.

Medical subject headings