Probing the Interaction between Nanoparticles and Lipid Membranes by Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation Monitoring.

Nariman Yousefi,Nathalie Tufenkji

doi:10.3389/fchem.2016.00046

Abstract

There is increasing interest in using quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) to investigate the interaction of nanoparticles (NPs) with model surfaces. The high sensitivity, ease of use and the ability to monitor interactions in real-time has made it a popular technique for colloid chemists, biologists, bioengineers, and biophysicists. QCM-D has been recently used to probe the interaction of NPs with supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) as model cell membranes. The interaction of NPs with SLBs is highly influenced by the quality of the lipid bilayers. Unlike many surface sensitive techniques, by using QCM-D, the quality of SLBs can be assessed in real-time, hence QCM-D studies on SLB-NP interactions are less prone to the artifacts arising from bilayers that are not well formed. The ease of use and commercial availability of a wide range of sensor surfaces also have made QCM-D a versatile tool for studying NP interactions with lipid bilayers. In this review, we summarize the state-of-the-art on QCM-D based techniques for probing the interactions of NPs with lipid bilayers.

Highlights

Quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) is an acoustic surface sensitive technique for studying phenomena at a wide range of interfaces
Several surface sensitive techniques have been developed for studying the interaction of NPs with model surfaces and membranes, many of them lack the ability to probe their course of interaction in real-time, with molecular level precision and without the use of probe molecules such as dyes
In an effort to better replicate the complex structure of mammalian cells, Melby et al (2016) formed a lipid raft system incorporating highly ordered domains of sphingomyelin (SM) and cholesterol (Chol.) in a DOPC supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) using QCM-D (Figure 1C)

Summary

Introduction

Quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) is an acoustic surface sensitive technique for studying phenomena at a wide range of interfaces. Other hand, provides a label-free and contact-free method for studying the interaction of NPs with model surfaces and supported lipid bilayers (SLBs).

Results

Conclusion