Investigating Possible Enzymatic Degradation on Polymer Shells around Inorganic Nanoparticles
Inorganic iron oxide nanoparticle cores as model systems for inorganic nanoparticles were coated with shells of amphiphilic polymers, to which organic fluorophores were linked with different conjugation chemistries, including 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide (EDC) chemistry and two types of "click chemistry". The nanoparticle-dye conjugates were exposed to different enzymes/enzyme mixtures in order to investigate potential enzymatic degradation of the fluorophore-modified polymer shell. The release of the dyes and polymer fragments upon enzymatic digestion was quantified by using fluorescence spectroscopy. The data indicate that enzymatic cleavage of the fluorophore-modified organic surface coating around the inorganic nanoparticles in fact depends on the used conjugation chemistry, together with the types of enzymes to which the nanoparticle-dye conjugates are exposed ; This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG grant PA 794/25-1 to W.J.P.). L.Z. was supported by Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC). I.C. has received a postdoctorate fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt foundation. B.P. was supported by the Spanish MINECO-AEI/FEDER (MAT2015–74381-JIN), the Xunta de Galicia (Centro singular de investigación de Galicia accreditation 2016–2019, ED431G/09), and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund–ERDF) ; SI