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Updated: Jul 14, 2026

Nanomanipulation of Single RNA Molecules by Optical Tweezers
Published on: August 20, 2014
Unfolding of ribonuclease A on silica nanoparticle surfaces
Wen Shang1, Joseph H Nuffer, Jonathan S Dordick
1Rensselaer Nanotechnology Center, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180, USA.
Abstract:
This paper reports on the unfolding behavior of ribonuclease A (RNase A) on silica nanoparticle surfaces and quantitively demonstrates that nanoscale size and surface curvature play key roles in influencing the stability of adsorbed proteins. Urea denaturation analyses showed that the thermodynamic stability of RNase A decreased upon adsorption onto the nanoparticles, with greater decrease on larger nanoparticles. The stability changes of RNase A correlate well with the changes in the protein-nanoparticle interactions, which increase as the surface contact area and surface charge interaction increases. This study, therefore, provides fundamental information on the effect of nanoscale surfaces on protein structure and function.
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