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doctoral thesis

Hydrophobic Interaction and its Small Molecule effect

Mao, Ting  
2024

Protein stabilization has a crucial rule sustaining biological functionality, disease prevention, and pharmaceutical formulation stabilization, and yet its stabilization mechanism by small molecules such as amino acids is not fully understood. In this work, we proposed a mixed ligand-protected gold nanoparticle model system that encompasses fundamental protein interactions to study the colloidal interaction change in such a phenomenon. We find the amino acids stabilize colloids in a general term including non-biological nanoparticles, various proteins, and plasmid DNA, through a weak interaction on hydrophobic patches on these colloids. A theoretical framework is developed and validated experimentally that can describe the interaction changes among the colloids studied, due to the amino acids. Our studies show that proline reduces attractive interactions in colloids, which are strongly influenced by hydrophobic interactions. Using nanoparticles with varying hydrophobicity, we find that greater hydrophobicity leads to more aggregation and increased proline stabilization. In a gold nanoparticle system dominated by electrostatic repulsion, proline significantly shortens the decay length of attractive forces, with minimal effect on repulsive forces. We also examined the role of water structure in this stabilization. While proline alters water structure, no correlation was found between these changes and proline's stabilizing properties, suggesting that direct interaction with colloids is key. This thesis provides new insights into protein stabilization from a colloidal perspective. This work here in provides insights to rethink about protein stabilization effect from a colloidal point of view, while also encompass the aspect co-solvent change on the bulk structure of water to understand the phenomenon of small molecules stabilizing proteins.

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Type
doctoral thesis
DOI
10.5075/epfl-thesis-10553
Author(s)
Mao, Ting  

EPFL

Advisors
Stellacci, Francesco  
Jury

Dr John Christopher Plummer (président) ; Prof. Francesco Stellacci (directeur de thèse) ; Prof. Michele Ceriotti, Prof. Eric Appel, Prof. Paolo Samorì (rapporteurs)

Date Issued

2024

Publisher

EPFL

Publisher place

Lausanne

Public defense year

2024-11-01

Thesis number

10553

Total of pages

143

Subjects

colloidal interaction

•

protein interaction

•

amino acids

•

protein stabilization

•

Cryo-TEM tomography

•

Small Angle X-ray Scattering

•

water structure

•

X-ray Raman Spectroscopy

•

hydration

EPFL units
SUNMIL  
Faculty
STI  
School
IMX  
Doctoral School
EDMX  
Available on Infoscience
October 21, 2024
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/241653
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