Boosting Membrane Interactions and Antimicrobial Effects of Photocatalytic Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles by Peptide Coating

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningfagfællebedømt

Photocatalytic nanoparticles offer antimicrobial effects under illumination due to the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), capable of degrading bacterial membranes. ROS may, however, also degrade human cell membranes and trigger toxicity. Since antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) may display excellent selectivity between human cells and bacteria, these may offer opportunities to effectively “target” nanoparticles to bacterial membranes for increased selectivity. Investigating this, photocatalytic TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) are coated with the AMP LL-37, and ROS generation is found by C11-BODIPY to be essentially unaffected after AMP coating. Furthermore, peptide-coated TiO2 NPs retain their positive ζ-potential also after 1–2 h of UV illumination, showing peptide degradation to be sufficiently limited to allow peptide-mediated targeting. In line with this, quartz crystal microbalance measurements show peptide coating to promote membrane binding of TiO2 NPs, particularly so for bacteria-like anionic and cholesterol-void membranes. As a result, membrane degradation during illumination is strongly promoted for such membranes, but not so for mammalian-like membranes. The mechanisms of these effects are elucidated by neutron reflectometry. Analogously, LL-37 coating promoted membrane rupture by TiO2 NPs for Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, but not for human monocytes. These findings demonstrate that AMP coating may selectively boost the antimicrobial effects of photocatalytic NPs.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftSmall
ISSN1613-6810
DOI
StatusAccepteret/In press - 2024

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
The authors thank ILL (Proposal number 9‐13‐924) and ISIS ( https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2210096 ) for access to neutron beam time and solid‐liquid interface cells. The research was funded by the Swedish Research Council (Grant numbers 2021–05498; MM, LC), Independent Research Fund Denmark (Grant number 9040‐00020B; MM and EPO), as well as the LEO Foundation Center for Cutaneous Drug Delivery (Grant number 15007; MP and MM). The Swedish Research Council and the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research were also acknowledged for access to nCHREM via ARTEMI, the Swedish National Infrastructure in Advanced Electron Microscopy (Grants No. 2021‐00171 and No. RIF21‐0026). Funding Sources: Neutron beam time was awarded at ILL (Proposal number 9‐13‐924) and ISIS (RB2210096). The research was funded by the Swedish Research Council (Grant numbers 2021–05498; MM, LC), the Independent Research Fund Denmark (Grant number 9040‐00020B; MM, EPO, and LC), as well as the LEO Foundation Center for Cutaneous Drug Delivery (Grant number 15007; MP, MM).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Authors. Small published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.

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