Interaction of plasma proteins with ZnSe and ZnSe@ZnS core-shell quantum dots

Herein, we report, interaction of water-soluble ZnSe core only (size =3.60 +/- 0.12 nm, zeta potential = 45 mV), and ZnSe@ZnS core-shell (size =4.80 +/- 0.20 nm, zeta potential =-38 mV) quantum dots (QDs) with three globular plasma.proteins (Human Serum Albumin (HSA), Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) and beta-lactoglobulin (beta-Lg)). It was found that QDs effectively quenched the fluorescence of proteins that was size-dependent. The nature of quenching was static which resulted from the generation of QDsProtein complexes. it was found that the binding affinity followed: BSA > HSA >beta-Lg for both ZnSe and ZnSe@ZnS samples. Interestingly, the secondary and tertiary structure of proteins remained unaffected after interactions. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.