Speaker
Description
There is growing concern about plastic waste in the environment, and its impact on biological organisms. While bulk plastics are thought to be non-toxic, when the plastics break down to a sub-micron length scale (i.e. nanoplastics), they obtain extra mobility inside living things, and may cause various adverse effects [1,2]. This, coupled with a lack of knowledge surrounding the dangers from different types of plastics, prevents well-designed responses to the problem. Hypothetically, the potential adverse effects are caused by protein denaturation, oxidative stress and/or cellular membrane damage. However, the inherent complexity of biological systems makes it challenging to gain a mechanistic understanding. Adding complexity to this problem, the potential adverse effects are highly dependent on the nature of nanoparticles (NPs) – the contributing factors could include elemental composition, chemistry of the plastic surface, and/or size of the plastic particle [3,2,4].
When in biological systems, nanoplastics are surrounded by various types of proteins5. The structure of proteins surrounding nanoplastics are important parameters to understand the interaction of nanoplastic/protein composite. We carried out light scattering and small angle neutron scattering (SANS) experiments to explore the structure of the protein corona on monodisperse polystyrene spheres using a model protein human serum albumin (HSA). The geometry of the PS/HSA complex was investigated with a contrast matching method. The transition from a “soft” to a “hard” interaction between the nanoparticle and the protein was observed when pH is lowered from 7.4, and the implications of this on nanoplastic toxicity is discussed.
References
Sharma, S.; Chatterjee, S. Environmental Science and Pollution Research 2017, 24, 21530-21547.
Lee, K.-W.; Shim, W. J.; Kwon, O. Y.; Kang, J.-H. Environmental science & technology 2013, 47, 11278-11283.
Mattsson, K.; Johnson, E. V.; Malmendal, A.; Linse, S.; Hansson, L.-A.; Cedervall, T. Scientific Reports 2017, 7, 11452.
Cui, R.; Kim, S. W.; An, Y.-J. Scientific reports 2017, 7, 12095.
Tenzer, S.; Docter, D.; Kuharev, J.; Musyanovych, A.; Fetz, V.; Hecht, R.; Schlenk, F.; Fischer, D.; Kiouptsi, K.; Reinhardt, C. Nature nanotechnology 2013, 8, 772.
| Topic | Soft Matter |
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