Minimal Cytotoxicity of Water-Soluble SiQDs with Blood Plasma Proteins Interaction

Prof. C. Shanmugavel et al., and his research collaboration team (from various universities at Japan) have been investigated on the interaction of blood plasma proteins and water-soluble silicon quantum dots (SiQDs) for the minimal cytotoxicity. This research investigation was reported in nanomaterials of MDPI publication journal and published on 13^thNovember 2020. In this research article, they have reported on the conformational changes of blood plasma proteins during the interaction with near-infrared light-emitting nanoparticles, which comprised with assembled Pluronic-F127 coated semiconductor (silicon) QDs terminated with decane monolayers.

The semiconductor QDs have chosen as an alternative, owing to its high quantum yield and low photo bleaching characters by various researchers and scientists. Other previous research studies have also showed that the QDs has exhibited a molecular interaction with various proteins, which consists of toxic heavy metal ions (like mercury selenium, lead, cadmium). Hence, they have found the water soluble semiconductor QDs possess for the molecular interactions without any toxic ions. Water-soluble semiconductor QDs are found to be in contact with our blood stream that is very essential for the biological applications. It also includes the biomarkers, who are working for the first therapeutic spectral window with deep tissue imaging for better understanding of the compatibility with blood stream [1].

Silicon (Si) is the semiconducting element that have present in the water-soluble semiconductor QDs, which is widely used for the various device applications and industries due to its environmentally friendly, inert, non-toxic and abundant. Therefore, SiQDs are found to be suitable for developing the class of quantum materials, owing to its superior optical properties, tunability of the photoluminescence (PL) peak wavelength for the biological applications [1].

Human blood plasma were composed of specific functionalities enriched with thousands of proteins. As per Human Proteome Organization, it can be identified that about 89% of proteins were detected from 21,842 plasma proteins. Among them, only 10% have been utilized and measured quantitatively. In general, our human blood consists of high molecular weight proteins (such as albumin and globulin), which detect the low molecular weight proteins. The main essential proteins that are present in our human blood plasma are Albumin, Fibrinogen, and Transferrin, respectively. However, the most abundant protein (55%) in the blood plasma is the Albumin, which involves delivering fatty acids, and transporting nutrients, steroids with several therapeutic drugs [2].

The main three plasma proteins (Albumin, Fibrinogen, and Transferrin) were chosen during the meet of nanoparticles with SiQDs to investigate its morphological changes. When the nanoparticles enters in to the bloodstream, then there will be an interaction of biomolecules for the formation of bio-corona, such as protein corona, on its surfaces. These interaction of blood plasma proteins plays a major significant role on the development of nanoparticles for the drug delivery applications [3, 4].

Hadjidemetriou et al. [3] have reported that an inner layer with tightly bound proteins is termed as ‘hard corona,’ while an outer rapidly exchanging layer with weakly bound proteins is termed as ‘soft corona.’ Also, both the albumin and transferrin have exhibited higher quenching constants (10¹¹th order) that leads to stronger association of hard protein corona formation. Meanwhile, the fibrinogen have a lower (10¹⁰th order) quenching constant, of soft protein corona formation.

Scheme 1. The Schematic diagram of synthesized Pluronic-F127 with functionalized decyl-coated silicon quantum dots (SiQD-De) nanoparticles and protein corona formation assumption [1].

Water-Soluble Nanoparticle Synthesis of SiQDs:

Based upon the scheme, they have prepared a waterborne particles, which consists of a Pluronic F127 core shell, assembled with SiQDs terminated apart from the decane monolayers. The preparation of hydrogen-terminated QDs were carried out using the thermal disproportionation method of the TES hydrolysis product, followed by subsequent hydrofluoric acid etching. By optimizing the reaction temperature and hydrofluoric acid etching, the QDs diameters were been controlled, due to its diamond cubic lattice structure. Further, the QDs termination with decane monolayers were carried out using thermal hydrosilylation of 1-decane to yield the product SiQD-De.

Interaction between Nanoparticles and Plasma Proteins:

The molecular interaction between the SiQD-De/F127 nanoparticles and the plasma proteins were monitored using UV-vis spectrometry. Further, they reported that the addition of nanoparticles (about 0–2 µg/mL) have influenced the spectral properties of plasma proteins were in the range of 190–400 nm. These changes in the absorption were recorded, which can attributed to emerging effect of polar solvents like water. Around the aromatic amino acid residues of proteins (i.e., phenylalanine, tryptophan, and tyrosine), the perturbation of the micro environment occurs.

A concern protein-nanoparticle interactions results to the conformational changes or denaturation of proteins adsorbed to the nanoparticles. Hence, such conformational changes and its further investigations revealed that even after the interaction, the protein can realize its regular biological activity [5].

Our SNB team have emphasize this research article to enrich our viewer’s knowledge to understand the following four points with minimal cytotoxicity. (i) An interaction of water-soluble silicon quantum dots and blood plasma proteins. (ii) Biocompatible SiQDs/F127 nanoparticles were successfully synthesized using Pluronic F127. (iii) The continuous observation of the optical absorption and emission properties of proteins with addition of nanoparticles. (iv) The interesting phenomena that can be identified was the ‘plasma proteins’ binding parameters were mainly depends upon the interaction between the protein binding surface and the nanoparticles. But, it is a deserving attention that the conformational changes are identified only for fibrinogen and transferrin, which suggests that the nanoparticle do not influence the ordered structure of proteins to the bloodstream. Hence, this research team and their report have recommended the basis for the QDs designing without altering the biomacromolecules of original conformation that enable the cellular uptake with minimal cytotoxicity.

References

C. Shanmugavel, et al., Nanomaterials, 10, 2250 (2020).
Y. K. Paik, et al., J. Proteome Res. 17, 4023 (2018).
M. Hadjidemetriou et al., Nat. Nanotechnol.12, 288 (2017).
V. P. Vu, et al., Nat. Nanotechnol. 14, 260 (2019).
S.Qu, et al., Small, 16, 1907633 (2020).

--- Dr. Y. Sasikumar

School of Materials Science and Engineering,

Tianjin University of Technology, China

Email:sasikumar.phd@gmail.com

Author Profile

Comments

A Biomimetic Eye with Perovskite Nanowire

The term “Biomimetics” derived from Ancient Greek, refers to life imitation. It is an interdisciplinary field in which comes from biology, engineering, and chemistry concepts. Biomimetics is applied to the synthesis of machines, or devices, which have functions that mimic real-life biological processes. Prof. Fan Zhiyoung , Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China, and his team (from the University of California and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA) has reported on the effective biological eye results with a new development “Biomimetic Eye” with supportive components such as hemispherical shape retina and perovskite nanowires [1] . Our eyes possess exceptional image and sensing nature, which selectively express the wide field of view, resolution, and sensitivity [2] . A specialty of biomimetic eye parts with such highlighted characteristics is a desirable one, specifically in robotics

Pottery Shard CNTs Discovery in Sixth Century: Keeladi, Tamilnadu, India

Prof. Manivannan et al., and his research collaboration team have been investigated the discovery of carbon nanotubes in sixth century BC potteries that have obtained from Keeladi, Tamilandu, India. This investigation has reported in Nature publication journal of “Scientific Reports” on 13 th November 2020 [ 1 ]. This is one of the most interesting reports and scientific research from Keeladi excavation located in the southern part of India. Keeladi Excavation: The excavation was first started in Pallisanthai Thidal which is in the north of Manalur, about a kilometer east of the town of Keeladi in Sivagangai district, Tamilnadu, India. Number of various archaeological residues were found in this excavation, when plowing the land around the site. The first survey was conducted in 2013 in the vicinity of the Vaigai river, 293 sites were identified during the study including Keeladi, and all this sites have an archaeological residues [ 2 ]. A part of excavation, researchers found carbon

Bifunctional Water Splitting Catalysts: Large Current Density

Fuel cell technology is one of the most emerging fields with ecofriendly and everlasting energy source way of producing energy for the urgent requirements. Further it needs to be improved to make it cheap and more environmental friendly. Among all fuel cells, the hydrogen (H 2 ) and oxygen (O 2 ) fuel cell is the one with zero carbon emission, more ecofriendly, high potential and the byproduct is just only the water. However, supplying the fuels in the purest form (at least the H 2 ) is very essential to ensure higher life cycles and less decay in cell efficiency. Nowadays, commercially available large scale H 2 production is mainly dependent on steam reforming of fossil fuels which can also generates CO 2 along with H 2 and the source that is going to be depleted, and this byproduct is not environmental friendly. Therefore, an emerging alternate technology is needed; in this case the electrolysis of water has given a greater attention than the steam reforming. Recently many sc

Efficient Bio-Diesel Synthesis: Reusable Magnetic Catalysis

Prof. Anping Wang et al., with his research collaborative team from china ( 1. Guizhou University, China; and 2. Guizhou Normal University, China) and India (National Chemical Laboratory, India) have reviewed the research over views on the preparation methods, physicochemical properties, stabilization/functionalization, and the catalytic applications of magnetic materials, including magnetic acids, bases, enzymes, and acid-base bifunctional materials for the synthesis of bio-diesel. Here, we discuss only the preparation of efficient bio-diesel with merits and applications of magnetic nanocatalyst for the bio-diesel preparation . Bio-diesel products are mainly attain from bio mass feed stocks, which gives more attention in the biorefinery research affairs [1]. A green way of renewable liquid biofuels are emergency required one in present atmosphere. Among the various classes, best one is renewable diesel fuel, the chemical content of long-chain fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) or ethy

Threatened Species: An Alert of Red List from IUCN

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) organization was established in 1964 to safeguard our natural species information details. This organization helps to identify the species when these are diminished due to abnormal issues in environmental forces or evolutionary changes in their population numbers. IUCN was recommended the information on the global risk status of plants, fungus, and animal species [1] . Overall world, the term “Biodiversity” and their conservation progress is an attentive one. As per IUCN, the announced Red List shows a critical condition of the world’s natural biodiversity. The major part of assessments representing on the Red List (in IU CN) are accounted out by following government/non-government members: Species Survival Commission (SSC). Red List Partners . Red List Authorities (RLAs). O ther specialists (who working on assessment projects). It gives information about the probable range, habitat, population size, ecology, threats, and co

Wearable Laser-Induced Graphene Mask

Prof. Ruquan Ye, from city University of Hong Kong and his collaboration with Prof. Chunlei Zhu, Ben Zhong Tang, and their research team have developed photo-thermally laser-induced graphene as a wearable mask with superior antibacterial capacity. Face masks have become a life-sustaining role in fighting against the outbreak of diseases like EBOLA and COVID-19. However, improper usage and disposal of masks may lead to secondary transmission around the globe. The vital role of the mask is a primary source to prevent us from COVID-19. In this pandemic situation, we must be alert about the used mask materials. The materials should safeguard us from COVID-19 as well as it must be bio-degradable material to safeguard around the world. The masks, currently available in the market are of single-use with/without filtering layers of thermoplastic materials like polypropylene. The degradation of these used masks takes at least 10 year

Hot Hole-Deriven Water Splitting via LSPR Metal Nanostructures

The localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) in metal nanostructures is one of the most efficient materials for the futuristic energy, environmental science and industry. The new era is the ability to significantly drive and promote photocatalytic reactions and photodetection which acts as an interfacial energy transfer to adsorbate molecules and semiconductors. The combination of plasmonic noble metallic nanostructures with semiconductors for plasmon-enhanced visible light-driven water splitting (WS) has attracted considerable attention. WS is one of the most capable way to save solar energy into other useful energy applications. In WS, solar energy is converted to chemical energy mainly in the form of hydrogen and oxygen. Some of the review reports indicate that the highest reported quantum efficiency for overall WS achieved is 57% with NiO/NaTaO 3 :La photocatalyst under the excitation wavelength of 270 nm [1]. Its large scale commercial applications are still lacking due to

Micro-Alloying of ‘Stainless Mg’ via Ca: Exceptional Corrosion Resistance

German Scientists have established an alloy with ultra-high-purity of magnesium of exceptionally low corrosion rate– Stainless Magnesium approach, via alloying of pure magnesium (Mg) with a tiny amounts of calcium (Ca) has been reported in Materials Horizons on 24 th November 2020. Mg is found to be the lightest structural metal with various properties like high strength-to-weight ratio, excellent electrochemical characteristics, Young’s modulus similar to human bone with low cost. Mg is widely used in aerospace, electronic, automotive, biomedical and energy-storage applications owing to its high strength, low weight, and excellent electrochemical properties, due to its abundance in the earth’s crust. Particularly, Mg possess light weight than aluminium (Al) and makes attractive from a sustainable perspective. Therefore, replacing of Al with ‘ Stainless Mg ’ in flights and cars will reduce the fuel consumption with free of carbon dioxide emissions. However, its usage is limited and r

Giant Spontaneous Hall Effect Without a Magnet

Surprising phenomenon in the solid state physics was “ The Hall effect, which requires normally magnetic fields, can also be generated completely in a different way by without the magnet to give an extreme strength ” – Published by Sami Dzsabera et al., in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, on 19 th February 2021. Weyl–Kondo semimetal have been discovered recently, the three-dimensional (3D) Dirac cones that describes with massless relativistic quasiparticles, which was stabilized by breaking via either time-reversal symmetry (TRS) or inversion symmetry (IS). Sami Dzsabera et al., have reported the discovery of a giant spontaneous Hall effect in 3D materials, which have not only identifies an ideal technique. However, it will demonstrates a strong correlations that can drive extreme topological responses, which we can expect to trigger for future work. Further, they reported that the giant spontaneous Hall effect of semimetal seems to be the non-centrosymmetr

Designing of Corrosion Resistant Alloys via Percolation Theory

Canada and USA Scientists have reported on designing of corrosion-resistant alloys via percolation theory and published in Nature Materials on 01 February 2021. Nickel–chromium, Iron–chromium binary alloys can serve as the prototypical corrosion-resistant metals owing to its presence of a nanometre-thick protective passive oxide film. The main key criterion for good passive behavior is the passive film should be compromised via a scratch or abrasive wear that can be reformed with a little metal dissolution. This could be a principal reason for the stainless steels and other chromium containing alloys that are used for critical applications which ranges from nuclear reactor components to biomedical implants. A long-standing unanswered question in corrosion science is the unravelling of the compositional dependence of the electrochemical behavior of the alloys [ 1, 2 ]. The discovery of the family of these alloys were increased its rate with the advent of artificial intelligence, da

Search This Blog