Acid-enhanced conformation changes of yeast cytochrome c coated onto gold nanoparticles, a FT-IR spectroscopic analysis

Under conditions with or without linker molecules, the effects of acidic pH on the conformation of yeast iso-1-cytochrome c coated onto gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in correlation with color changes of a Cyt c-coated AuNPs solution/suspension were examined by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and correlated to color change. The results of detailed secondary structural analysis revealed that although the color changes coincide with acid-induced conformational changes in Cyt c coated onto AuNPs, the pH-related conformational unfolding of Cyt c coated onto AuNPs differed dramatically from that of its counterpart in solution. For Cyt c free in solution, the acid-induced unfolding did not occur until the pH was below 3.0, whereas for Cyt c coated onto AuNPs via C102 coordination near the C-terminal, a partial unfolding was observed even at near neutral pH which continuously intensified as pH decreased. Insertion of a short alkanethiol (3-mercaptoproprionic acid, 3-MPA) molecule between Cyt c and AuNP, which changes the interaction mode from a thiol coordination between Cyt c and AuNP to an electrostatic interaction between Cyt c and 3-MPA, which stabilized the conformation of Cyt c significantly, but did not prevent the acid-induced aggregation of Cyt c-3MPA-AuNPs.