Atomic structural details of a protein grafted onto gold nanoparticles. Issue 1 (December 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Giuntini, Stefano; Cerofolini, Linda; Ravera, Enrico; Fragai, Marco; Luchinat, Claudio
• Is Part Of: Scientific reports. Volume 7:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 6
• Publication Date: 2017-12
• Subjects: Natural history -- Research -- Periodicals; Biology -- Research -- Periodicals; Physical sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; Earth sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; Environmental sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; 502.85
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-18109-z
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2045-2322

Abstract

Abstract The development of a methodology for the structural characterization at atomic detail of proteins conjugated to nanoparticles would be a breakthrough in nanotechnology. Solution and solid-state NMR spectroscopies are currently used to investigate molecules and peptides grafted onto nanoparticles, but the strategies used so far fall short in the application to proteins, which represent a thrilling development in theranostics. We here demonstrate the feasibility of highly-resolved multidimensional heteronuclear spectra of a large protein assembly conjugated to PEGylated gold nanoparticles. The spectra have been obtained by direct proton detection under fast MAS and allow for both a fast fingerprinting for the assessment of the preservation of the native fold and for resonance assignment. We thus demonstrate that the structural characterization and the application of the structure-based methodologies to proteins bound to gold nanoparticles is feasible and potentially extensible to other hybrid protein-nanomaterials.