Nanoparticles Associate with Intrinsically Disordered RNA-Binding Proteins

Nanoparticles are capable of penetrating cells, but little is known about the way they interact with intracellular proteome. Here we show that inorganic nanoparticles associate with low-complexity, intrinsically disordered proteins from HeLa cytosolic protein extracts in nondenaturing in vitro nanoparticle pull-down assays. Intrinsic protein disorder associates with structural mobility, suggesting that side-chain flexibility plays an important role in the driving of a protein to nanoparticle absorption. Disordered protein domains are often found in a diverse group of RNA-binding proteins. Consequently, the nanoparticle-associated proteomes were enriched in subunits of RNA-processing protein complexes. In turn, this indicates that within a cell, nanoparticles might interfere with protein synthesis triggering a range of cellular responses.