Membrane Phase Drives the Assembly of Gold Nanoparticles on Biomimetic Lipid Bilayers
Year: 2022
Authors: Cardellini J., Caselli L., Lavagna E., Salassi S., Amenitsch H., Calamai M., Montis C., Rossi G., Berti D.
Autors Affiliation: Univ Florence, Dept Chem Ugo Schiff, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Univ Florence, CSGI, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Univ Genoa, Dept Phys, I-16146 Genoa, Italy; Graz Univ Technol, Inst Inorgan Chem, A-8010 Graz, Austria; European Lab Nonlinear Spect LENS, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.
Abstract: In recent years, many efforts have been devoted to investigating the interaction of nanoparticles (NPs) with lipid biomimetic interfaces, both from a fundamental perspective aimed at understanding relevant phenomena occurring at the nanobio interface and from an application standpoint for the design of novel lipid-nanoparticle hybrid materials. In this area, recent reports have revealed that citrate-capped gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) spontaneously associate with synthetic phospholipid liposomes and, in some cases, self-assemble on the lipid bilayer. However, the mechanistic and kinetic aspects of this phenomenon are not yet completely understood. In this study, we address the kinetics of interaction of citrate-capped AuNP with lipid vesicles of different rigidities (gel-phase rigid membranes on one side and liquid-crystalline-phase soft membranes on the other). The formation of AuNP-lipid vesicle hybrids was monitored over different time and length scales, combining experiments and simulation. The very first AuNP-membrane contact was addressed through molecular dynamics simulations, while the structure, morphology, and physicochemical features of the final colloidal objects were studied through UV-visible spectroscopy, small-angle X-ray scattering, dynamic light scattering, and cryogenic electron microscopy. Our results highlight that the physical state of the membrane triggers a series of events at the colloidal length scale, which regulate the final morphology of the AuNP-lipid vesicle adducts. For lipid vesicles with soft membranes, the hybrids appear as single vesicles decorated by AuNPs, while more rigid membranes lead to flocculation with AuNPs acting as bridges between vesicles. Overall, these results contribute to a mechanistic understanding of the adhesion or self-assembly of AuNPs onto biomimetic membranes, which is relevant for phenomena occurring at the nano-bio interfaces and provide design principles to control the morphology of lipid vesicle-inorganic NP hybrid systems.
Journal/Review: JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY C
Volume: 126 (9) Pages from: 4483 to: 4494
More Information: This work has been supported by the European Community through the evFOUNDRY project (H2020-FETopen, ID 801367) and the BOW project (H2020-EIC-FETPROACT2019, ID 952183). We also acknowledge MIUR-Italy (’’Progetto Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2018-2022, ref B96C1700020008’’ allocated to the Department of Chemistry ’’Ugo Schiff’’) and Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze for the economic support. The Elettra Synchrotron SAXS facility (Basovizza, Trieste, Italy) is acknowledged for beam time. We acknowledge the Florence Center for Electron Nanoscopy (FloCEN) at the University of Florence. G.R. acknowledges funding from the ERC BioMNP project (Grant 677513) and from the H2020 SUNSHINE project (952924). G.R. and S.S. acknowledge funding from the University of Genoa via a Curiosity Driven grant (2019-2021). G.R., S.S., and E.L. acknowledge funding by MIUR-DIFI Dipartimento di Eccellenza 2018-2022 for computational resources.KeyWords: Liposomes; Citrate; Size; Magnetoliposomes; Separation; Model; DlsDOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c08914Citations: 18data from “WEB OF SCIENCE” (of Thomson Reuters) are update at: 2024-10-20References taken from IsiWeb of Knowledge: (subscribers only)