Structural Change of Apoferritin as the Effect of pH Change: Dynamic Light Scattering and Small Angle Neutron Scattering Study

Apoferitin is a complex protein potential for drug delivery application. The advantage of apoferritin lies on its core-shell structure, its nano size, and its sensitivity to pH. Current study aims to characterize the structural of apoferritin due to pH alteration effect in solution using dynamic light scattering (DLS) and small angle neutron scattering (SANS). Both DLS and SANS are able to observe protein size in solution near in its physiological condition. The results show that apoferritin possess core-shell structure with diameter of around 12-13 nm at pH 7. The dissociation of apoferritin occurs at pH 1.9. The SANS data shows the apoferritin at pH 1.9 was dissociated into trimers. The core shell structure of apoferritin in pH 7 was change to trimer new arrangement at pH 1.9.