Plugging into proteins: poisoning protein function by a hydrophobic nanoparticle.

Nanoscale particles have become promising materials in many fields, such as cancer therapeutics, diagnosis, imaging, drug delivery, catalysis, as well as biosensors. In order to stimulate and facilitate these applications, there is an urgent need for the understanding of the nanoparticle toxicity and other risks involved with these nanoparticles to human health. In this study, we use large-scale molecular dynamics simulations to study the interaction between several proteins (WW domains) and carbon nanotubes (one form of hydrophobic nanoparticles). We have found that the carbon nanotube can plug into the hydrophobic core of proteins to form stable complexes. This plugging of nanotubes disrupts and blocks the active sites of WW domains from binding to the corresponding ligands, thus leading to the loss of the original function of the proteins. The key to this observation is the hydrophobic interaction between the nanoparticle and the hydrophobic residues, particularly tryptophans, in the core of the domain. We believe that these findings might provide a novel route to the nanoparticle toxicity on the molecular level for the hydrophobic nanoparticles.