A Research On Chemical Coupling And Physical Absorption Interactions Between Gold Nanoparticles And Proteins

Due to its excellent physical and chemical properties, nanoparticles became very popular in scientific research and widely used in various fields. In recent years, a variety of functionalized nanoparticles began to exercise its function in vivo, it is very difficult to constantly monitor nanoparticles in the body, so it is not very clear that how nanoparticles impact the organism. After nanoparticles got into the body, the main biomolecules they faced are mainly proteins. Protein is the material basis of life and closely related to various of life activities, all components which require the participation of protein in living organisms. Usually in the practical application nanoparticles were modified in a variety of ways, make them have different functions and properties, such as molecules used in coating nanoparticles can be biocompatible or ordinary chemical molecules, with different surface charges, any specific groups or binding sites, etc. Interaction between these different nanoparticles and proteins will generate different results. Nanoparticles and proteins can be conjugated through chemical conjugation and physical absorption. There are kinds of physical absorption including van der Waals force, electrostatic force, hydrophobic force etc. This experiment is mainly about chemical conjugation (EDC coupling) and physical absorption between protein and polymer-coated nanopartilces identified by agarose gel electrophoresis. After analysing these results, the major interacting machenism of physical absorption between protein and polymer-coated nanopartilces was confirmed to be hydrophobic force. And discrete nanoparticle-protein conjugates were obtained by both chemical coupling and physical absorption. The discrete nanoparticle-protein conjugates will show great potential in nano manufacture and biological detection.