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Thermodynamics of the Interaction Between Graphene Quantum Dots with Human Serum Albumin and γ-Globulins

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Abstract

As one of the newly emerged nanomaterials, graphene quantum dots (GQDs) have shown great application potential as tracking probes and drug carriers in biological areas. The GQDs synthesized via the nitric acid reflux method in this study turned out to quench the fluorescence of human serum albumin (HSA) and gamma globulin (γ-globulin) in two different functional ways. The fluorescence quenching effect of GQDs on HSA is a static pattern and the predominant interaction forces are hydrogen bonds and van der Waals forces. Distinct from HSA, the interaction between GQDs and γ-globulins belongs to dynamic quenching and is driven by electrostatic forces. Ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) differential spectrometry and transient state fluorescence spectrometry were also utilized to further confirm their quenching types. Also, thermodynamics parameters, the enthalpy change (ΔH) and entropy change (ΔS) of reaction between GQDs and proteins were obtained through a series of calculations from the van’t Hoff equation. Furthermore, the effect of GQDs on the conformational structure of proteins was characterized by synchronous fluorescence spectra (SFS), three-dimensional (3D) fluorescence and circular dichroism (CD) spectra. In addition, the binding mechanism of GQDs with HSA and γ-globulins were proposed based on the obtained experimental results. The research on the reaction between GQDs with HSA and γ-globulins offers promising insight for the further application of nanomaterials in biomedical fields.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from National Nature Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21873075), Guangxi Scientific and Technological Development Projects (AD17195081), and BAGUI Scholar Program of Guangxi Province of China (2016).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (MOE), College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, People’s Republic of China

    Xiao-Xu Ba, Tian Gao, Peng Jiang, Feng-Lei Jiang & Yi Liu

  2. Hubei Province Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion and New Type of Carbon Materials, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430081, People’s Republic of China

    Mian Yang & Yi Liu

  3. Guangxi Key Laboratory of Natural Polymer Chemistry and Physics, Nanning Normal University, Nanning, 530001, People’s Republic of China

    Yi Liu

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  1. Xiao-Xu Ba
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Ba, XX., Gao, T., Yang, M. et al. Thermodynamics of the Interaction Between Graphene Quantum Dots with Human Serum Albumin and γ-Globulins. J Solution Chem 49, 100–116 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10953-019-00941-8

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