Spatial mapping and quantification of soft and hard protein coronas at silver nanocubes.

Teodora Miclăuş, Vladimir E Bochenkov, Ryosuke Ogaki, Kenneth A Howard, Duncan S Sutherland

Index: Nano Lett. 14(4) , 2086-93, (2014)

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Abstract

Protein coronas around silver nanocubes were quantified in serum-containing media using localized surface plasmon resonances. Both soft and hard coronas showed exposure-time and concentration-dependent changes in protein surface density with time-dependent hardening. We observed spatially dependent kinetics of the corona-formation at cube edges/corners versus facets at short incubation times, where the polymer stabilization agent delayed corona hardening. The soft corona contained more protein than the hard corona at all time-points (8-fold difference with 10% serum conditions).