Nanoparticles are becoming increasingly utilised in the medical field with applications ranging from treatment and drug delivery to diagnostics. Their small size gives them a large surface area to volume ratio which allows them to readily interact with other small molecules. Whilst this can be a useful property in medicine, it also means introduction into biological fluids such as the blood will cause them to react with the proteins present. This leads to the formation of what is known as a protein corona which is the adsorption of proteins onto the surface of the nanoparticle. Understanding how this is formed and the potential effects is essential for safe and effective use of nanoparticles in medicine. This study aimed to identify what effect size has on protein corona formation on gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). This was achieved by exposure of 10 and 20 nm AuNPs to a range of human serum albumin concentrations and measured the resulting hydrodynamic diameter using dynamic light scattering. This allowed for calculation of the dissociation constant, KD, and the maximum thickness of the corona for each size tested. No significant difference was found in either of these parameters between the sizes of nanoparticle tested. The observed thickness of the corona was also found to be equivalent to the expected thickness of albumin, indicating both sizes are able to form a monolayer with this protein. Due to the high concentration of albumin in serum, it seems likely that nanoparticles of these sizes would quickly form a corona around AuNPs in the blood, however it is not clear whether other proteins in serum would preferentially bind, and the different conditions in the blood could affect the binding properties of AuNPs. Further research could also determine if this finding is consistent across different sizes or materials of nanoparticles.
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