Study of the Interaction of Double-Walled Carbon Nanotubes with Follicle-Stimulating Hormone: A Molecular Dynamics Simulation

The interaction between nano particles such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and macromolecules are receiving much attention because of their wide range of applications in cancer therapy, tissue engineering, protein crystallization and biological sensors. It is believed that carbon nanotubes through interaction with proteins (nanoparticle-protein corona) can have biological effects. Carbon nanotubes are highly hydrophobic in pristine condition, so there is the possibility of interaction of natural and pristine carbon nanotubes to the hydrophobic core of protein due to the strong affinity between carbon nanotubes and hydrophobic amino acids. However, such interaction can lead to loss of main function of the protein. Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) is a glycoprotein hormone that is release from the pituitary gland. This hormone is regulates the development and growth of pubertal maturation, and reproductive processes of the body. FSH is a very unstable hormone in vitro and there has been very little research on it, so in this paper, we study the interaction of double-walled carbon nanotube of chirality (11, 14) and approximately 25 Å in length with FSH by molecular dynamics simulation. The results revealed that the hydrophobic chains tend to interact with the outer surface of double-walled carbon nanotube, and the π-π and hydrophobic interaction is revealed to be main driving force to the adsorption between carbon nanotubes and the hormone.