title: Study on the molecular interaction of graphene quantum dots with human serum albumin: combined spectroscopic and electrochemical approaches.
abstract: Graphene quantum dots (GQDs) have attracted great attention in biological and biomedical applications due to their super properties, but their potential toxicity investigations are rarely involved. Since few studies have addressed whether GQDs could bind and alter the structure and function of human serum albumin (HSA), the molecular interaction between GQDs and HSA was systematically characterized by the combination of multispectroscopic and electrochemical approaches. GQDs could quench the intrinsic fluorescence of HSA via static mode. The competitive binding fluorescence assay revealed that the binding site of GQDs was site I of HSA. Some thermodynamic parameters suggested that GQDs interacted with HSA mainly through van der Waals interactions and hydrogen bonding interactions, and protonation might also participate in the process. As further revealed by FT-IR spectroscopy and circular dichroism technique, GQDs could cause the global and local conformational change of HSA, which illustrated the potential toxicity of GQDs that resulted in the structural damage of HSA. Electrochemical techniques demonstrated the complex formation between GQDs and HSA. Our results offered insights into the binding mechanism of GQDs with HSA and provided important information for possible toxicity risk of GQDs to human health.
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry and Material Science, Guangxi Teachers Education University, Nanning 530001, PR China.
authors.forename: Shan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry and Material Science, Guangxi Teachers Education University, Nanning 530001, PR China.
authors.forename: Hangna
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry and Material Science, Guangxi Teachers Education University, Nanning 530001, PR China.
authors.forename: Shuangyan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry and Material Science, Guangxi Teachers Education University, Nanning 530001, PR China.
authors.forename: Fawei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry and Material Science, Guangxi Teachers Education University, Nanning 530001, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Virology, College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, PR China. Electronic address: qi.xiao@whu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xiao
mesh_terms: D055664:Electrochemical Techniques; D006108:Graphite / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D045663:Quantum Dots / Q000737:chemistry*; D012709:Serum Albumin / Q000737:chemistry*; D013057:Spectrum Analysis / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D012709:Serum Albumin; D006108:Graphite
keywords: Binding interaction; Graphene quantum dots; Human serum albumin