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Electrophysiological characterization of membrane disruption by nanoparticles

Electrophysiological characterization of membrane disruption by nanoparticles
Electrophysiological characterization of membrane disruption by nanoparticles
Direct contact of nanoparticles with the plasma membrane is essential for biomedical applications such as intracellular drug delivery and imaging, but the effect of nanoparticle association on membrane structure and function is largely unknown. Here we employ a sensitive electrophysiological method to assess the stability of protein-free membranes in the presence of silica nanospheres of different size and surface chemistry. It is shown that all the silica nanospheres permeabilize the lipid bilayers already at femtomolar concentrations, below reported cytotoxic values. Surprisingly, it is observed that a proportion of the nanospheres is able to translocate over the pure-lipid bilayer. Confocal fluorescence imaging of fluorescent nanosphere analogs also enables estimation of the particle density at the membrane surface; a significant increase in bilayer permeability is already apparent when less than 1% of the bilayer area is occupied by silica nanospheres. It can be envisaged that higher concentrations of nanoparticles lead to an increased surface coverage and a concomitant decrease in bilayer stability, which may contribute to the plasma membrane damage, inferred from lactate dehydrogenase release, that is regularly observed in nanotoxicity studies with cell cultures. This biophysical approach gives quantitative insight into nanosphere-bilayer interactions and suggests that nanoparticle-lipid interactions alone can compromise the barrier function of the plasma membrane
silica nanoparticles, lipid bilayers, membranes, electrophysiology, nanobiophysics, nanotoxicology
1936-0851
3599-3606
de Planque, Maurits R.R.
699f5608-f89b-4a54-8e46-c342fbe7b18c
Aghdaei, Sara
6bb71f1d-c8be-458c-a787-35336308282e
Roose, Tiina
3581ab5b-71e1-4897-8d88-59f13f3bccfe
Morgan, Hywel
de00d59f-a5a2-48c4-a99a-1d5dd7854174
de Planque, Maurits R.R.
699f5608-f89b-4a54-8e46-c342fbe7b18c
Aghdaei, Sara
6bb71f1d-c8be-458c-a787-35336308282e
Roose, Tiina
3581ab5b-71e1-4897-8d88-59f13f3bccfe
Morgan, Hywel
de00d59f-a5a2-48c4-a99a-1d5dd7854174

de Planque, Maurits R.R., Aghdaei, Sara, Roose, Tiina and Morgan, Hywel (2011) Electrophysiological characterization of membrane disruption by nanoparticles. ACS Nano, 5 (5), 3599-3606. (doi:10.1021/nn103320j).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Direct contact of nanoparticles with the plasma membrane is essential for biomedical applications such as intracellular drug delivery and imaging, but the effect of nanoparticle association on membrane structure and function is largely unknown. Here we employ a sensitive electrophysiological method to assess the stability of protein-free membranes in the presence of silica nanospheres of different size and surface chemistry. It is shown that all the silica nanospheres permeabilize the lipid bilayers already at femtomolar concentrations, below reported cytotoxic values. Surprisingly, it is observed that a proportion of the nanospheres is able to translocate over the pure-lipid bilayer. Confocal fluorescence imaging of fluorescent nanosphere analogs also enables estimation of the particle density at the membrane surface; a significant increase in bilayer permeability is already apparent when less than 1% of the bilayer area is occupied by silica nanospheres. It can be envisaged that higher concentrations of nanoparticles lead to an increased surface coverage and a concomitant decrease in bilayer stability, which may contribute to the plasma membrane damage, inferred from lactate dehydrogenase release, that is regularly observed in nanotoxicity studies with cell cultures. This biophysical approach gives quantitative insight into nanosphere-bilayer interactions and suggests that nanoparticle-lipid interactions alone can compromise the barrier function of the plasma membrane

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More information

Published date: 25 April 2011
Keywords: silica nanoparticles, lipid bilayers, membranes, electrophysiology, nanobiophysics, nanotoxicology
Organisations: Bioengineering Sciences

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 184661
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/184661
ISSN: 1936-0851
PURE UUID: 31a3e090-a46a-41a5-b6bb-739d6ac25ce3
ORCID for Tiina Roose: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-8710-1063
ORCID for Hywel Morgan: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4850-5676

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 09 May 2011 08:51
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:31

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Contributors

Author: Maurits R.R. de Planque
Author: Sara Aghdaei
Author: Tiina Roose ORCID iD
Author: Hywel Morgan ORCID iD

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