Computational Biology Center, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, USA.
Wiley Interdiscip Rev Syst Biol Med. 2014 Jul-Aug;6(4):329-43. doi: 10.1002/wsbm.1271. Epub 2014 Jun 4.
The widespread use of nanomaterials in biomedical applications has been accompanied by an increasing interest in understanding their interactions with tissues, cells, and biomolecules, and in particular, on how they might affect the integrity of cell membranes and proteins. In this mini-review, we present a summary of some of the recent studies on this important subject, especially from the point of view of large scale molecular simulations. The carbon-based nanomaterials and noble metal nanoparticles are the main focus, with additional discussions on quantum dots and other nanoparticles as well. The driving forces for adsorption of fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and graphene nanosheets onto proteins or cell membranes are found to be mainly hydrophobic interactions and the so-called π-π stacking (between aromatic rings), while for the noble metal nanoparticles the long-range electrostatic interactions play a bigger role. More interestingly, there are also growing evidences showing that nanotoxicity can have implications in de novo design of nanomedicine. For example, the endohedral metallofullerenol Gd@C₈₂(OH)₂₂ is shown to inhibit tumor growth and metastasis by inhibiting enzyme MMP-9, and graphene is illustrated to disrupt bacteria cell membranes by insertion/cutting as well as destructive extraction of lipid molecules. These recent findings have provided a better understanding of nanotoxicity at the molecular level and also suggested therapeutic potential by using the cytotoxicity of nanoparticles against cancer or bacteria cells.
纳米材料在生物医学应用中的广泛使用，引起了人们对其与组织、细胞和生物分子相互作用的极大兴趣，特别是对它们如何影响细胞膜和蛋白质完整性的关注。在这篇迷你综述中，我们总结了一些关于这个重要主题的最新研究，特别是从大规模分子模拟的角度来看。主要关注碳基纳米材料和贵金属纳米粒子，同时也讨论了量子点和其他纳米粒子。研究发现，富勒烯、碳纳米管和石墨烯纳米片吸附到蛋白质或细胞膜上的驱动力主要是疏水相互作用和所谓的π-π 堆积（芳环之间），而对于贵金属纳米粒子，长程静电相互作用则起着更大的作用。更有趣的是，越来越多的证据表明，纳米毒性可能对纳米医学的从头设计产生影响。例如，内包金属富勒醇 Gd@C82(OH)22 被证明通过抑制酶 MMP-9 来抑制肿瘤生长和转移，石墨烯通过插入/切割以及破坏性提取脂质分子来破坏细菌细胞膜。这些最新发现从分子水平上更好地理解了纳米毒性，并通过利用纳米颗粒对癌细胞或细菌的细胞毒性来暗示了治疗潜力。
