title: pH-dependent protein conformational changes in albumin:gold nanoparticle bioconjugates: a spectroscopic study.
abstract: The conformational changes of bovine serum albumin (BSA) in the albumin:gold nanoparticle bioconjugates were investigated in detail by various spectroscopic techniques including UV-vis absorption, fluorescence, circular dichroism, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopies. Our studies suggested that albumin in the bioconjugates that was prepared by the common adsorption method underwent substantial conformational changes at both secondary and tertiary structure levels. BSA was found to adopt a more flexible conformational state on the boundary surface of gold nanoparticles as a result of the conformational changes in the bioconjugates. The conformational changes at pH 3.8, 7.0, and 9.0, which corresponded to different isomeric forms of albumin, were investigated, respectively, to probe the pH effect on the conformational changes of BSA in the bioconjugates. The results showed that the pH of the medium influenced the changes greatly and that fluorescence and circular dichroism studies further indicated that the changes were larger at higher pH.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, Jilin 130022, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shang
authors.forename: Yizhe
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Junguang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Shaojun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dong
mesh_terms: D000418:Albumins / Q000737:chemistry*; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002942:Circular Dichroism; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D011487:Protein Conformation; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine / Q000737:chemistry; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D013053:Spectrophotometry / Q000379:methods*; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet / Q000379:methods; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
chemical_list: D000418:Albumins; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine; D006046:Gold