The physical and chemical properties of coated nanoparticles are highly tunable and are increasingly being used in commercial applications. This wider distribution will eventually lead to their downstream release into the environment. Unfortunately, an understanding of the health and environmental impact of nanoparticles is still incomplete. In order to begin to address this question, some of us in the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology have experimentally and computationally investigated the propensity of anionic 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) coated nanoparticles to interact with a model lipid bilayer membrane with or without the presence of the commercially available model protein cytochrome c. When the protein is present, increased membrane attachment is observed. Does this hold true when the nature of the nanoparticle coating is drastically changed? As a complement to the earlier studies, here, the interactions of mostly neutral w-(1-mercaptounde-11-cyl)hexa(ethylene glycol) (EG6) coated nanoparticles with cytochrome c are simulated so as to characterize the nanoparticle-protein interaction, particularly in terms of electrostatics.

Modeling the interaction between EG6 coated gold nanoparticles and cytochrome c

2019 Fall National Meeting

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