Influence of Functionalized Gold Nanorods on the Structure of Cytochrome -C: An Effective Bio-nanoconjugate for Biomedical Applications

Protein interact with functionalized nanoparticle surface (bio-nanoconjugate) has been attracted attention in various biomedical applications such as biosensing, bioimaging, tissue engineering and drug delivery etc. However, the formation of bio-nanoconjugate is inadequately understood in various biomedical applications due to their complex structures. Hence, there is an urgent need to understand the formation of bio-nanoconjugate for safe nanobiomedicine. In this study, we have prepared 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid (11-MUA) functionalized gold nanorods (AuNRs, length 30 nm x width 8 nm) with aspect ratio of 3.75 +/- 0.10 through wet chemical method. Optical property, size, morphology, colloidal stability of functionalized gold nanorods (Au-11-MUANRs) were characterized through UV-visible, HR-TEM, DLS, Zeta potential and FT-IR spectral techniques. These functionalized gold nanorods with various concentrations were interacted with Cytochrome C (Cyt-C) under the similar physiological condition (pH 7.4) and its subsequent structural changes were examined through Circular dichroism spectroscopy. The obtained CD result indicated that Au-11-MUANRs were slightly altering the structural conformation of Cyt-C at higher concentration due to the stronger electrostatic interaction between the positively charged Cyt-C with negatively charged Au-11-MUANRs. This study clearly reveals that lower concentration (<1 mu M) of Au-11-MUANRs interacted Cyt-C based nanobio-conjugate as potential material for safe biomedical applications.

Automated summary

Protein interact with functionalized nanoparticle surface has attracted attention in biomedical applications. However, the formation of bio-nanoconjugate is not well understood due to their complex structures. This study prepared functionalized gold nanorods and examined their interaction with Cytochrome C. The results revealed the potential of these functionalized gold nanorods as safe biomedical materials at lower concentrations.