Dual topography of laminin corona on gallium arsenide nanowires

Nanowires (NWs) are novel nanomaterials with applications in everything from medical implants to solar cells. With increasing number of applications, it is increasingly likely that organisms are exposed to these materials either intentionally or by accident. It is, therefore, important to study their interactions with biological systems and biomolecules. Upon exposure to biological fluids, nanostructure surfaces are quickly covered by a biomolecule corona. The composition of the corona determines the nanostructure's biological fate. Furthermore, upon adsorption, the protein structure can be affected. In order to study the corona morphology, we used two model proteins, laminin of the extracellular matrix and the immune system enzyme myeloperoxidase. We image the protein corona directly by cryo-TEM and enhance resolution by labeling the corona with activated gold nanoparticles. Three-dimensional imaging of the protein corona further increases the resolution and reveals irregularities in corona topography. By doing so, we identified bimodal distribution of spacing between gold nanoparticles and the NW surface for laminin corona at 58 and 85 nm distance from the NWs' surface. The dual topography of the corona is adding a new complexity of the protein corona surface and its interactions with the surrounding biology.