Gold nanoparticle shape effects on human serum albumin corona interface: a molecular dynamic study

In recent years, there has been considerable progress in the design and study of gold nanoparticles that geared toward biomedical applications. In most imaging and therapeutic applications, gold nanoparticles enter the bloodstream directly by intravenous administration forming molecular complexes with encountered proteins termed as the protein corona. Since albumin is the most abundant protein in human blood plasma, in this study, gold nanoparticle interactions and its shape effects on human serum albumin were studied by molecular dynamic simulation. These results revealed that in the interaction of albumin with any shapes of gold nanoparticle, human serum albumin unfolds and helix amount decreases. Cubic gold nanoparticles showed stronger unfolding effects on the albumin than the spherical gold nanoparticles.