Studies on bacterial proteins corona interaction with saponin imprinted ZnO nano-honeycombs and their toxic responses

Abstract

Molecular imprinting generates robust, efficient and highly mesoporous surfaces for bio-interactions. Mechanistic interfacial interaction between the surface of core substrate and protein corona is crucial to understanding the substantial microbial toxic responses at a nanoscale. In this study, we have focused on the mechanistic interactions between synthesised saponin imprinted zinc oxide nano-honeycombs (SIZnO NHs), average size 80-125 nm, surface area 20.27 m2/g, average pore density 0.23 pore/nm and number average pore size 3.74 nm and proteins corona of bacteria. The produced SIZnO NHs as potential anti-fungal and anti-bacterial agents have been studied on Sclerotium rolfsii (S. rolfsii), Pythium debarynum (P. debarynum) and Escherichia coli (E. coli), Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), respectively. SIZnO NHs exhibited the highest antibacterial (~50%) and antifungal (~40%) activity against gram-negative bacteria (E. coli) and fungus (P. debarynum) respectively at concentration of 0.1 mol. Scanning electron spectroscopy (SEM) observation showed that the ZnO NHs ruptured the cell wall of bacteria and internalised into the cell. The molecular docking studies have been carried out using lipopolysaccharide and lipocalin Blc as binding proteins. It was envisaged that the proteins present in the bacterial cell wall were found to interact and adsorb on the surface of SIZnO NHs thereby blocking the active sites of the proteins used for cell wall synthesis. The binding affinity and interaction energies for lipopolysaccharide were higher than those of the lipocalin Blc. In addition, a kinetic mathematical model (KMM) was developed in MATLAB to predict the internalisation in the bacterial cellular uptake of the ZnO NHs for better understanding of their controlled toxicity. The results obtained from KMM exhibited a good agreement with the experimental data. Exploration of mechanistic interactions, as well as the formation of bioconjugate of proteins and ZnO NHs would play a key role to interpret more complex biological systems in nature.