Toxicity of nanoparticles has become a significant environmental and health concern as nanotechnology applications continue to grow and they become integral components of consumer products.  While binding of nanoparticles to proteins is often a first step in their mechanism of toxicity, a very limited number of studies have addressed nanoparticle-protein interactions in a quantitative manner. The objective of our study is to gain quantitative understanding of these interactions. The study focuses on the interactions between proteins and luminescent semiconductor quantum dots, a class of luminescent nano crystals that has found numerous applications ranging from biomedical imaging to photovoltaic cells and devices. Taking advantage of the unique luminescent properties of semiconductor quantum dots we are using fluorescence lifetime spectroscopy and imaging studies to measure in real time the binding kinetics of model peptides to CdSe/ZnS quantum dots. The presentation will describe the capability of fluorescence lifetime spectroscopy and imaging method to carry out real time kinetic measurements and to obtain the binding constant of peptides to nanoparticles with high sensitivity. The effect of peptide composition, length, and charge on the binding kinetics of peptides to CdSe/ZnS nanoparticles will also be described.

Fluorescence lifetime spectroscopy and imaging study of the interactions between luminescent quantum dots and binding peptides

248th National Meeting (2014)

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