Protein-Protein Interactions Followed by in-Situ Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles

Abstract

Protein-protein interaction (PPI) plays an important role in various biochemical processes. Various binary mixtures of industrially important zein have been blended with rice and wheat proteins to expand their biological applicability. Zein-rice, zein-hard wheat, and zein-soft wheat mixtures show different behavior toward in vitro synthesis of Au NPs. This can also be explained by the TEM, FESEM, and DLS studies of PPI-Au NPs mixtures. Zein-rice-Au NPs mixture showed their mutual favorable interaction with high colloidal stability and high reduction ability towards nucleating Au NPs. This may be due to both hydrophobic and hydrophilic interaction of zein-rice PPI, which resulted in regular and shape-controlled Au NPs. In the case of zein-wheat PPI interaction, lesser hydrophobic interaction resulted in the incomplete unfolding of wheat protein and demixing of wheat protein with zein protein to anisotropic and irregular Au NPs. The study of these interactions will lead to the development of therapeutic centers toward different diseases and their environmental applications.