title: Nanobioarchitectures based on chlorophyll photopigment, artificial lipid bilayers and carbon nanotubes.
abstract: In the last decade, building biohybrid materials has gained considerable interest in the field of nanotechnology. This paper describes an original design for bionanoarchitectures with interesting properties and potential bioapplications. Multilamellar lipid vesicles (obtained by hydration of a dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine thin film) with and without cholesterol were labelled with a natural photopigment (chlorophyll a), which functioned as a sensor to detect modifications in the artificial lipid bilayers. These biomimetic membranes were used to build non-covalent structures with single-walled carbon nanotubes. Different biophysical methods were employed to characterize these biohybrids such as: UV-vis absorption and emission spectroscopy, zeta potential measurements, AFM and chemiluminescence techniques. The designed, carbon-based biohybrids exhibited good physical stability, good antioxidant and antimicrobial properties, and could be used as biocoating materials. As compared to the cholesterol-free samples, the cholesterol-containing hybrid structures demonstrated better stability (i.e., their zeta potential reached the value of -36.4 mV), more pronounced oxygen radical scavenging ability (affording an antioxidant activity of 73.25%) and enhanced biocidal ability, offering inhibition zones of 12.4, 11.3 and 10.2 mm in diameter, against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electricity and Magnetism, Solid-State Physics and Biophysics, Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, 405 Atomistilor Street, P.O. Box MG-11, Bucharest-Magurele, 077125, Romania.
authors.forename: Marcela Elisabeta
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Barbinta-Patrascu
authors.affiliation: 3Nano-SAE Research Centre, Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, P.O. Box MG-38, Bucharest-Magurele, 077125, Romania.
authors.forename: Stefan Marian
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Iordache
authors.affiliation: 3Nano-SAE Research Centre, Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, P.O. Box MG-38, Bucharest-Magurele, 077125, Romania.
authors.forename: Ana Maria
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Iordache
authors.affiliation: Department of General Chemistry, Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Materials Science, University Politehnica of Bucharest, 1-7 Polizu Street, 011061, Bucharest, Romania.
authors.forename: Nicoleta
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Badea
authors.affiliation: Department of General Chemistry, Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Materials Science, University Politehnica of Bucharest, 1-7 Polizu Street, 011061, Bucharest, Romania.
authors.forename: Camelia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ungureanu
keywords: antibacterial activity; antioxidant properties; artificial lipid bilayers; carbon nanotubes; chlorophyll