A closer look into the ubiquitin corona on gold nanoparticles by computational studies. (24th December 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tavanti, Francesco; Pedone, Alfonso; Menziani, Maria Cristina
• Is Part Of: New journal of chemistry. Volume 39:Number 4(2015:Apr.)
• Page Start: 2474
• Page End: 2482
• Publication Date: 2014-12-24
• Subjects: Chemistry -- Periodicals; Chimie -- Périodiques; 540
• DOI: 10.1039/c4nj01752h
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1144-0546

Abstract

Abstract : Course-grained simulations studies showed environmental-dependency of the mechanism of ubiquitin corona formation on gold nanoparticles and ubiquitin binding modalities, and a nanoparticle size-dependency of ubiquitin conformational changes and aggregation propensity. Abstract : In this study, coarse-grained computational simulations of the ubiquitin corona around gold nanoparticles have been carried out, and the effect of the nanoparticle size (10, 16, 20, and 24 nm diameter) and environment (bare nanoparticle surface, and citrate-coated surface, where citrate are treated with implicit and explicit models) has been analysed. The results showed that the corona is obtained after a slow reorientation step that occurs at the nanoparticle surface in order to optimize the nanoparticle–ubiquitins interaction. The ubiquitin binding modalities depend on the nanoparticle environment, while conformational changes of ubiquitins upon binding and their aggregation propensity slightly depend on nanoparticle size.