The Role of Temperature and Lipid Charge on Intake/Uptake of Cationic Gold Nanoparticles into Lipid Bilayers
Language English Country Germany Media print-electronic
Document type Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
- Keywords
- gold nanoparticles, lipid membranes, molecular dynamics simulations, nanotoxicity, neutron reflectometry,
- MeSH
- Adsorption MeSH
- Biological Transport MeSH
- Phosphatidylcholines chemistry metabolism MeSH
- Phosphatidylglycerols chemistry metabolism MeSH
- Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions MeSH
- Cations chemistry pharmacokinetics MeSH
- Metal Nanoparticles * chemistry MeSH
- Lipid Bilayers chemistry metabolism MeSH
- Membrane Lipids chemistry metabolism MeSH
- Surface Properties MeSH
- Molecular Dynamics Simulation MeSH
- Temperature * MeSH
- Gold chemistry pharmacokinetics MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
- Names of Substances
- Phosphatidylcholines MeSH
- Phosphatidylglycerols MeSH
- Cations MeSH
- Lipid Bilayers MeSH
- Membrane Lipids MeSH
- Gold MeSH
Understanding the molecular mechanisms governing nanoparticle-membrane interactions is of prime importance for drug delivery and biomedical applications. Neutron reflectometry (NR) experiments are combined with atomistic and coarse-grained molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to study the interaction between cationic gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and model lipid membranes composed of a mixture of zwitterionic di-stearoyl-phosphatidylcholine (DSPC) and anionic di-stearoyl-phosphatidylglycerol (DSPG). MD simulations show that the interaction between AuNPs and a pure DSPC lipid bilayer is modulated by a free energy barrier. This can be overcome by increasing temperature, which promotes an irreversible AuNP incorporation into the lipid bilayer. NR experiments confirm the encapsulation of the AuNPs within the lipid bilayer at temperatures around 55 °C. In contrast, the AuNP adsorption is weak and impaired by heating for a DSPC-DSPG (3:1) lipid bilayer. These results demonstrate that both the lipid charge and the temperature play pivotal roles in AuNP-membrane interactions. Furthermore, NR experiments indicate that the (negative) DSPG lipids are associated with lipid extraction upon AuNP adsorption, which is confirmed by coarse-grained MD simulations as a lipid-crawling effect driving further AuNP aggregation. Overall, the obtained detailed molecular view of the interaction mechanisms sheds light on AuNP incorporation and membrane destabilization.
Computational Physics Laboratory Tampere University P O Box 692 FI 33014 Tampere Finland
Department of Physics Norwegian University of Science and Technology NO 7491 Trondheim Norway
Department of Physics University of Helsinki P O Box 64 FI 00014 Helsinki Finland
Institut Laue Langevin 71 Avenue des Martyrs 38042 Grenoble France
Laboratoire TIMC IMAG Université Grenoble Alpes Domaine de la Merci 38706 La Tronche Cedex France
Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces 14476 Potsdam Germany
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