Atomic structural details of a protein grafted onto gold nanoparticles

Sci Rep. 2017 Dec 20;7(1):17934. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-18109-z.

Abstract

The development of a methodology for the structural characterization at atomic detail of proteins conjugated to nanoparticles would be a breakthrough in nanotechnology. Solution and solid-state NMR spectroscopies are currently used to investigate molecules and peptides grafted onto nanoparticles, but the strategies used so far fall short in the application to proteins, which represent a thrilling development in theranostics. We here demonstrate the feasibility of highly-resolved multidimensional heteronuclear spectra of a large protein assembly conjugated to PEGylated gold nanoparticles. The spectra have been obtained by direct proton detection under fast MAS and allow for both a fast fingerprinting for the assessment of the preservation of the native fold and for resonance assignment. We thus demonstrate that the structural characterization and the application of the structure-based methodologies to proteins bound to gold nanoparticles is feasible and potentially extensible to other hybrid protein-nanomaterials.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Asparaginase / chemistry*
  • Gold / chemistry*
  • Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
  • Metal Nanoparticles / chemistry*
  • Polyethylene Glycols / chemistry

Substances

  • Polyethylene Glycols
  • Gold
  • Asparaginase