title: Reduced Cytotoxicity of Graphene Nanosheets Mediated by Blood-Protein Coating.
abstract: The advent and pending wide use of nanoscale materials urges a biosafety assessment and safe design of nanomaterials that demonstrate applicability to human medicine. In biological microenvironment, biomolecules will bind onto nanoparticles forming corona and endow nanoparticles new biological identity. Since blood-circulatory system will most likely be the first interaction organ exposed to these nanomaterials, a deep understanding of the basic interaction mechanisms between serum proteins and foreign nanoparticles may help to better clarify the potential risks of nanomaterials and provide guidance on safe design of nanomaterials. In this study, the adsorption of four high-abundance blood proteins onto the carbon-based nanomaterial graphene oxide (GO) and reduced GO (rGO) were investigated via experimental (AFM, florescence spectroscopy, SPR) and simulation-based (molecular dynamics) approaches. Among the proteins in question, we observe competitive binding to the GO surface that features a mélange of distinct packing modes. Our MD simulations reveal that the protein adsorption is mainly enthalpically driven through strong π-π stacking interactions between GO and aromatic protein residues, in addition to hydrophobic interactions. Overall, these results were in line with previous findings related to adsorption of serum proteins onto single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), but GO exhibits a dramatic enhancement of adsorption capacity compared to this one-dimensional carbon form. Encouragingly, protein-coated GO resulted in a markedly less cytotoxicity than pristine and protein-coated SWCNTs, suggesting a useful role for this planar nanomaterial in biomedical applications.
authors.affiliation: †Institute of Quantitative Biology and Medicine, SRMP and RAD-X, Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chong
authors.affiliation: †Institute of Quantitative Biology and Medicine, SRMP and RAD-X, Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Cuicui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ge
authors.affiliation: †Institute of Quantitative Biology and Medicine, SRMP and RAD-X, Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Zaixing
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: ‡IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, United States.
authors.forename: Jose Antonio
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Garate
authors.affiliation: †Institute of Quantitative Biology and Medicine, SRMP and RAD-X, Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Zonglin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.affiliation: ‡IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, United States.
authors.forename: Jeffrey K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.affiliation: †Institute of Quantitative Biology and Medicine, SRMP and RAD-X, Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Jiajia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: †Institute of Quantitative Biology and Medicine, SRMP and RAD-X, Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.|‡IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, United States.|§Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, United States.
authors.forename: Ruhong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D001798:Blood Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D006108:Graphite / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000737:chemistry / Q000633:toxicity*; D006801:Humans; D056004:Molecular Dynamics Simulation; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000633:toxicity*; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D001798:Blood Proteins; D006108:Graphite
keywords: blood proteins; cytotoxicity; graphene; interactions; safe design