Role of structural specificity of ZnO particles in preserving functionality of proteins in their corona

Abstract Reconfiguration of protein conformation in a micro and nano particle (MNP) protein corona due to interaction is an often-overlooked aspect in drug design and nano-medicine. Mostly, MNP-Protein corona studies focus on the toxicity of nano particles (NPs) in a biological environment to analyz...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Urvashi Singh, Zeeshan Saifi, Mridul Kumar, Armin Reimers, Soami Daya Krishnananda, Rainer Adelung, Martina Baum
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2021-08-01
Series:Scientific Reports
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-95540-3
Description
Summary:Abstract Reconfiguration of protein conformation in a micro and nano particle (MNP) protein corona due to interaction is an often-overlooked aspect in drug design and nano-medicine. Mostly, MNP-Protein corona studies focus on the toxicity of nano particles (NPs) in a biological environment to analyze biocompatibility. However, preserving functional specificity of proteins in an NP corona becomes critical for effective translation of nano-medicine. This paper investigates the non-classical interaction between insulin and ZnO MNPs using a classical electrical characterization technique at GHz frequency with an objective to understand the effect of the micro particle (MP) and nanoparticle (NP) morphology on the electrical characteristics of the MNP-Protein corona and therefore the conformation and functional specificity of protein. The MNP-Protein corona was subjected to thermal and enzymatic (papain) perturbation to study the denaturation of the protein. Experimental results demonstrate that the morphology of ZnO particles plays an important role in preserving the electrical characteristics of insulin.
ISSN:2045-2322