Sensing nanoparticle-protein corona using nanoparticle enhanced Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy signal enhancement

Marcella Dell'Aglio; Zita Salajková; Antonia Mallardi; Maria Chiara Sportelli; Jozef Kaiser; Nicola Cioffi; Alessandro De Giacomo

doi:10.1016/j.talanta.2021.122741

Sensing nanoparticle-protein corona using nanoparticle enhanced Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy signal enhancement

Talanta. 2021 Dec 1:235:122741. doi: 10.1016/j.talanta.2021.122741. Epub 2021 Jul 24.

Authors

Marcella Dell'Aglio¹, Zita Salajková², Antonia Mallardi³, Maria Chiara Sportelli⁴, Jozef Kaiser⁵, Nicola Cioffi⁴, Alessandro De Giacomo⁶

Affiliations

¹ CNR-NANOTEC, Institute of Nanotechnology, c/o Chemistry Department, Via Orabona 4, 70125, Bari, Italy. Electronic address: marcella.dellaglio@cnr.it.
² Department of Chemistry, University of Bari, Via Orabona 4, 70125, Bari, Italy; Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC), Brno University of Technology, Purkyňova 656/123, 612 00, Brno, Czech Republic.
³ CNR-IPCF, Institute for Chemical-Physical Processes, c/o Chemistry Department, Via Orabona 4, 70125, Bari, Italy. Electronic address: a.mallardi@ba.ipcf.cnr.it.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, University of Bari, Via Orabona 4, 70125, Bari, Italy.
⁵ Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC), Brno University of Technology, Purkyňova 656/123, 612 00, Brno, Czech Republic.
⁶ CNR-NANOTEC, Institute of Nanotechnology, c/o Chemistry Department, Via Orabona 4, 70125, Bari, Italy; Department of Chemistry, University of Bari, Via Orabona 4, 70125, Bari, Italy; CSGI (Center for Colloid and Surface Science), Via Orabona 4, 70125, Bari, Italy.

PMID: 34517609
DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2021.122741

Abstract

Recently nanoparticle enhanced Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (NELIBS) is getting a growing interest as an effective alternative method for improving the analytical performance of LIBS. On the other hand, the plasmonic effect during laser ablation can be used for a different task rather than elemental analysis. In this paper, the dependence of NELIBS emission signal enhancement on nanoparticle-protein solutions dried on a reference substrate (metallic titanium) was investigated. Two proteins were studied: Human Serum Albumin (HSA) and Cytochrome C (CytC). Both proteins have a strong affinity for the gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) due to the bonding between the single free exterior thiol (associated with a cysteine residue) and the gold surface to form a stable protein corona. Then, since the protein sizes are vastly different, a different number of protein units is needed to cover AuNP surface to form a protein layer. The NP-protein solution was dropped and dried onto the titanium substrate. Then the NELIBS signal enhancement of Ti emission lines was correlated to the solution characteristics as determined with Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) spectroscopy and Laser Doppler Electrophoresis (LDE) for ζ-potential determination. Moreover, the dried solutions were studied with TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy) for the inspection of the inter-particle distance. The structural effect of the NP-protein conjugates on the NELIBS signal reveals that NELIBS can be used to determine the number of protein units required to form the nanoparticle-protein corona with good accuracy. Although the investigated NP-protein systems are simple cases in biological applications, this work demonstrates, for the first time, a different use of NELIBS that is beyond elemental analysis and it opens the way for sensing the nanoparticle protein corona.

Keywords: Cytochrome C; Gold nanoparticles; Human serum albumin; NELIBS; Naked AuNPs by PLAL; Nanoparticle protein corona.

MeSH terms

Gold
Humans
Lasers
Metal Nanoparticles*
Protein Corona*
Spectrum Analysis

Substances

Protein Corona
Gold