Studies of Cardio Toxin Protein Adsorption on Mixed Self-Assembled Monolayers Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Abstract

To understand protein adsorption on a surface is very important in bio-related domains of technology and application such as biomaterials, implant biocompatibility, and biosensor technology. (Gray 2004) Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are excellent model surfaces for biology and biochemistry because they are stable, highly ordered, easy to prepare, and provide a wide range of organic functionality. (Love et al. 2005) Previous experimental studies (Ostuni et al. 2003; Prime & G.M. Whitesides 1991) have indicated that hydrophobic interactions are the major mechanism for protein adsorption on surfaces, and the dehydration of both the protein and hydrophobic SAMs provides an entropic driving force for protein adsorption. (Ostuni et al. 2003) Nonetheless, there are still many questions needed to be clarified and difficult to be investigated in experiments. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation is a powerful tool that is able to investigate the atomic details of a molecular system. This paper summarizes the investigations of proteins adsorption on alkanethiol SAMs by means of MD simulations in order to expand the limited information that the experiments can provide. (Hung et al.2006; Hung et al.2010; Hung et al. 2011)