A closer look into the ubiquitin corona on gold nanoparticles by computational studies†
Francesco Tavanti,Alfonso Pedone,Maria Cristina Menziani
New Journal of Chemistry Pub Date : 12/16/2014 00:00:00 , DOI:10.1039/C4NJ01752H
Abstract

In this study, coarse-grained computational simulations of the ubiquitin corona around gold nanoparticles have been carried out, and the effect of the nanoparticle size (10, 16, 20, and 24 nm diameter) and environment (bare nanoparticle surface, and citrate-coated surface, where citrate are treated with implicit and explicit models) has been analysed. The results showed that the corona is obtained after a slow reorientation step that occurs at the nanoparticle surface in order to optimize the nanoparticle–ubiquitins interaction. The ubiquitin binding modalities depend on the nanoparticle environment, while conformational changes of ubiquitins upon binding and their aggregation propensity slightly depend on nanoparticle size.

Graphical abstract: A closer look into the ubiquitin corona on gold nanoparticles by computational studies