Interaction Analysis of Commercial Graphene Oxide Nanoparticles with Unicellular Systems and Biomolecules

• Main Authors: Brixhilda Domi, Carlos Rumbo, Javier García-Tojal, Livia Elena Sima, Gabriela Negroiu, Juan Antonio Tamayo-Ramos
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-12-01
• Series: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
• Subjects: graphene; unicellular organisms; toxicity; binding capacity; atr-ftir; tem; icp-ms
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/21/1/205

The ability of commercial monolayer graphene oxide (GO) and graphene oxide nanocolloids (GOC) to interact with different unicellular systems and biomolecules was studied by analyzing the response of human alveolar carcinoma epithelial cells, the yeast <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> and the bacteria <i>Vibrio fischeri</i> to the presence of different nanoparticle concentrations, and by studying the binding affinity of different microbial enzymes, like the &#945;-<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">l</span>-rhamnosidase enzyme RhaB1 from the bacteria <i>Lactobacillus plantarum</i> and the AbG &#946;-<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">d</span>-glucosidase from <i>Agrobacterium</i> sp. (strain ATCC 21400). An analysis of cytotoxicity on human epithelial cell line A549, <i>S. cerevisiae</i> (colony forming units, ROS induction, genotoxicity) and <i>V. fischeri</i> (luminescence inhibition) cells determined the potential of both nanoparticle types to damage the selected unicellular systems. Also, the protein binding affinity of the graphene derivatives at different oxidation levels was analyzed. The reported results highlight the variability that can exist in terms of toxicological potential and binding affinity depending on the target organism or protein and the selected nanomaterial.