Consequences of Hydrophobic Nanotube Binding on the Functional Dynamics of Signaling Protein Calmodulin

The wide applications of nanomaterials in industry and our daily life have raised growing concerns on their toxicity to human body. Increasing evidence links the cytotoxicity of nanoparticles to the disruption of cellular signaling pathways. Here, we report a computational study on the mechanisms of the cytotoxicity of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by investigating the direct impacts of CNTs on the functional motions of calmodulin (CaM), which is one of the most important signaling proteins in a cell, and its signaling function relies on the Ca²⁺ binding-coupled conformational switching. Computational simulations with a coarse-grained model showed that binding of CNTs modifies the conformational equilibrium of CaM and induces the closed-to-open conformational transition, leading to the loss of its Ca²⁺-sensing ability. In addition, the binding of CNTs drastically increases the calcium affinity of CaM, which may disrupt the Ca²⁺ homeostasis in a cell. These results suggest that the binding of hydrophobic nanotubes not only inhibits the signaling function of CaM as a calcium sensor but also renders CaM to toxic species through sequestering Ca²⁺ from other competing calcium-binding proteins, suggesting a new physical mechanism of the cytotoxicity of nanoparticles.