In recent years, the fabrication of nanomaterials and exploration of
their properties have attracted the attention of various scientific
disciplines such as biology, physics, chemistry, and engineering.
Although nanoparticulate systems are of significant interest in various
scientific and technological areas, there is little known about the
safety of these nanoscale objects. It has now been established that the
surfaces of nanoparticles are immediately covered by biomolecules (e.g.
proteins, ions, and enzymes) upon their entrance into a biological
medium. This interaction with the biological medium modulates the
surface of the nanoparticles, conferring a "biological identity" to
their surfaces (referred to as a "corona"), which determines the
subsequent cellular/tissue responses. The new interface between the
nanoparticles and the biological medium/proteins, called "bio-nano
interface," has been very rarely studied in detail to date, though the
interest in this topic is rapidly growing.
In this book, the importance of the physiochemical characteristics of
nanoparticles for the properties of the protein corona is discussed in
detail, followed by comprehensive descriptions of the methods for
assessing the protein-nanoparticle interactions. The advantages and
limitations of available corona evaluation methods (e.g. spectroscopy
methods, mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance, electron
microscopy, X-ray crystallography, and differential centrifugal
sedimentation) are examined in detail, followed by a discussion of the
possibilities for enhancing the current methods and a call for new
techniques. Moreover, the advantages and disadvantages of
protein-nanoparticle interaction phenomena are explored and discussed,
with a focus on the biological impacts.
