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Molecular Hyperthermia: Spatiotemporal Protein Unfolding and Inactivation by Nanosecond Plasmonic Heating
Author(s) -
Kang Peiyuan,
Chen Zhuo,
Nielsen Steven O.,
Hoyt Kenneth,
D'Arcy Sheena,
Gassensmith Jeremiah J.,
Qin Zhenpeng
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201700841
Subject(s) - nanosecond , optogenetics , photothermal therapy , protein folding , nanotechnology , nanoparticle , biophysics , plasmon , laser , materials science , biomolecule , nanoscopic scale , plasmonic nanoparticles , chemistry , biology , optoelectronics , physics , biochemistry , neuroscience , optics
Spatiotemporal control of protein structure and activity in biological systems has important and broad implications in biomedical sciences as evidenced by recent advances in optogenetic approaches. Here, this study demonstrates that nanosecond pulsed laser heating of gold nanoparticles (GNP) leads to an ultrahigh and ultrashort temperature increase, coined as “molecular hyperthermia”, which causes selective unfolding and inactivation of proteins adjacent to the GNP. Protein inactivation is highly dependent on both laser pulse energy and GNP size, and has a well‐defined impact zone in the nanometer scale. It is anticipated that the fine control over protein structure and function enabled by this discovery will be highly enabling within a number of arenas, from probing the biophysics of protein folding/unfolding to the nanoscopic manipulation of biological systems via an optical trigger, to developing novel therapeutics for disease treatment without genetic modification.