A fluorimetric study on the interaction between a Trp‐containing beta‐strand peptide and amphiphilic polymer‐coated gold nanoparticles

Owing to the inevitability of nanoparticles encountering proteins/peptides in current bio-nano-medicine development, it is important to know how they interact with each other in vitro before developing in vivo applications. To this end, a model de novo β-sheet-forming peptide and typical biocompatible nanoparticles were selected to study thermodynamic aspects of their interactions via a fluorescence quenching method. The results showed that Pep11 and AuNPs spontaneously formed conjugates, mainly driven by a coulombic interaction with a binding affinity of ~ 0.1 µM−1; the physical adsorption process was cooperative. These results deepen our quantitative understanding of nanoparticle–peptide interactions. The results may also be helpful in further nanoparticle–peptide hybrid nanofabrication and also useful for the application of nanoparticles in the treatment of amyloid diseases. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.