Department of Chemistry and Biology, Faculty of Science, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto ON M5B 2 K3, Canada.
Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Science, and Technology (iBEST), Keenan Research Centre, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, 209 Victoria Street, Toronto ON M5B 1 T8, Canada.
Nanoscale. 2021 Dec 16;13(48):20550-20563. doi: 10.1039/d1nr06137b.
Nanoparticles in biological systems such as the bloodstream are exposed to a complex solution of biomolecules. A "corona" monolayer of proteins has historically been thought to form on nanoparticles upon introduction into such environments. To examine the first steps of protein binding, Fluorescence Correlation/Cross Correlation Spectroscopy and Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer were used to directly analyze four different nanoparticle systems. CdSe/ZnS core/shell quantum dots, 100 nm diameter polystyrene fluospheres, 200 nm diameter polystyrene fluospheres, and 200 nm diameter PEG-grafted DOTAP liposomes were studied with respect to serum protein binding, using bovine serum albumin as a model. Surface heterogeneity is found to be a key factor in protein binding to these nanoparticles, and as such we present a novel conceptualization of the early hard corona as low-ratio, non-uniform binding rather than a uniform monolayer.
生物体系（如血流）中的纳米颗粒会暴露在含有复杂生物分子的溶液中。历史上，人们认为纳米颗粒一旦进入此类环境，其表面就会形成一层“冠”状的蛋白质单层。为了研究蛋白质结合的初始步骤，本研究使用荧光相关/交叉相关光谱和荧光共振能量转移技术，直接分析了四种不同的纳米颗粒体系。研究了 CdSe/ZnS 核/壳量子点、100nm 直径聚苯乙烯荧光球、200nm 直径聚苯乙烯荧光球和 200nm 直径 PEG 接枝 DOTAP 脂质体与血清蛋白结合的情况，以牛血清白蛋白作为模型。研究发现，表面不均匀性是这些纳米颗粒与蛋白质结合的关键因素，因此我们提出了一种新的概念，即将早期的硬壳冠视为低比例、非均匀结合，而不是均匀的单层。
