Bare surface of gold nanoparticle induces inflammation through unfolding of plasma fibrinogen

October 11, 2018

Title

Bare surface of gold nanoparticle induces inflammation through unfolding of plasma fibrinogen

Author

Bahar Kharazian, Samuel E. Lohse, Forough Ghasemi, Mohamad Raoufi, Amir Ata Saei, Fatemeh Hashemi, Fakhrossadat Farvadi, Reza Alimohamadi, Seyed Amir Jalali, Mohammad A. Shokrgozar, Nasser L. Hadipour, Mohammad Reza Ejtehadi, Morteza Mahmoudi

Year

2018

Journal

Scientific Reports

Abstract

The surface of nanoparticles (NPs) get coated by a wide range of biomolecules, upon exposure to biological fluids. It is now being increasingly accepted that NPs with particular physiochemical properties have a capacity to induce conformational changes to proteins and therefore influence their biological fates, we hypothesized that the gold NP’s metal surface may also be involved in the observed Fg unfolding and inflammatory response. To mechanistically test this hypothesis, we probed the interaction of Fg with gold surfaces using molecular dynamic simulation (MD) and revealed that the gold surface has a capacity to induce Fg conformational changes in favor of inflammation response. As the integrity of coatings at the surface of ultra-small gold NPs are not thorough, we also hypothesized that the ultra-small gold NPs have a capacity to induce unfolding of Fg regardless of the composition and surface charge of their coatings. Using different surface coatings at the surface of ultra-small gold NPs, we validated this hypothesis. Our findings suggest that gold NPs may cause unforeseen inflammatory effects, as their surface coatings may be degraded by physiological activity.

Instrument

J-715

Keywords

Circular dichroism, Secondary structure, Nanostructures, Chemical stability, Biochemistry, Materials