Nano-bio interactions between carbon nanomaterials and blood plasma proteins: why oxygen functionality matters

摘要

Oxygenated functional groups on one- and two-dimensional carbon nanomaterials play important roles in determining their interactions with blood plasma proteins. Chwee Teck Lim from the National University of Singapore and colleagues investigated how albumin, globulin and fibrinogen proteins found in blood plasma formed complexes with three types of tiny carbon compounds — short nanotubes containing carboxyl groups, thin graphene nanoplatelets and Swiss cheese—like sheets of porous graphene oxide. Using ultraviolet-visible and fluorescence spectroscopy techniques to probe biomolecular loading, the team found that porous graphene oxide had a greater affinity for proteins than nanotubes or nanoplatelets, in correlation with the density of oxygenated groups on each structure. Polarized-light measurement indicated that at a concentration of 40 micrograms per milliliter, porous graphene oxide induced conformational changes to fibrinogen that include a possible helix unraveling and protein denaturing.