碳纳米管与蛋白质相互作用的机制及其生物效应

The mechanism and biological effects for the interaction of carbon nanotubes with proteins

由于碳纳米管本身具有诸多优异的物理化学性质,已经在生物学和医学领域展现出潜在的应用前景.从纳米科技的长期发展而言,碳纳米管的安全应用及其潜在的毒理学评价显得非常重要.众所周知,碳纳米管用于载药、诊断或成像等生物医学领域时,会与生物体内的各种蛋白质产生相互作用,进而会改变碳纳米管自身的理化性质和影响蛋白质的构象及功能,从而引发不同的生物反应.而通过将蛋白质连接到碳纳米管上制备的生物器件,既降低了碳纳米管潜在毒性又为其安全生物应用开拓了市场.因此深入阐述碳纳米管-蛋白质相互作用的机制及后续的生物效应,对发展碳纳米管的安全应用具有重要意义.

Due to their extraordinary mechanical and physicochemical properties, carbon nanotubes have possessed broad range of potential applications in biology and biomedicine. However, the toxicological mechanism and safety of carbon nanotubes are still not understanding well. In vivo, carbon nanotubes could be interacted with the proteins firstly, when they were used in disease diagnose, imaging and drugs delivery fields. And then the physicochemical properties of carbon nanotube and the conformation of proteins would be changed, resulting in different biological effects. The biological devices based on proteins coated carbon nanotube have decreased the toxicity of carbon nanotubes and broaden the potential application. So it is important to describe the mechanism and biological effect of the interactions between carbon nanotubes and protein to guide safe applications of carbon nanotubes.