Interactions of Fly Ash Particles with Mucin and Serum Albumin

Abstract

Fly ash particles can contribute to haze and adverse health outcomes. In this study, two mucins, one from bovine submaxillary glands (bovine submaxillary mucin, BSM) and one from porcine stomach (porcine gastric mucin), as well as bovine serum albumin (BSA), which served as the physical barriers against foreign substances entering the tissues and the blood protein, respectively, were chosen as models for the investigations of the interactions between the proteins and the fly ash particles. Their adsorption behaviors were studied using spectroscopy and a quartz crystal microbalance with a dissipation monitor (QCM-D). The results indicated that the fly ash particles can induce the loosening of mucins and BSA, probably via the formation of complexes. Further, the secondary structure of proteins changed in the presence of fly ash particles. The α-helix content decreased with an increasing fly ash particle concentration. The addition of fly ash particles into protein solutions led to fluorescence quenching, which suggested that there were interactions between these particles and the mucins and BSA. The association constants ( K) for BSM and BSA were 5.35 and 4.18 L/g, respectively. Furthermore, the results of QCM-D analyses showed that the amount decreased on the mucin surface but increased slightly on the BSA surface, which indicated that the fly ash particles disrupted the mucin layer upon adsorption. These findings provide clear evidence of the interactions between the fly ash particles and the mucins and BSA, which can lead to structural changes. This study contributes to a better understanding of the interactions and adsorptions of atmospheric particulate pollutants with the proteins in the human body.

Real-Time QCM-D Monitoring of Deposition of Gold Nanorods on a Supported Lipid Bilayer as a Model Cell Membrane

“…The temperature was maintained at 37 ± 0.02 °C with intelligent control. The QCM-D data were analyzed with the help of QTools software. , …”

“…The QCM-D data were analyzed with the help of QTools software. 55,56 The QCM-D can achieve real-time monitoring of highly sensitive data. For example, the data change can be obtained at the nanogram level, even though being a single molecular layer or a fraction of an atomic layer.…”

Preparation and Performance of a Low-Carbon Foam Material of Fly-Ash-Based Foamed Geopolymer for the Goaf Filling

“…The reaction process of geopolymers is a process of repolymerization after depolymerization. During this process, the fly ash spherical particles are dissolved, the Al-O and Si-O bonds are destroyed, and new non-crystalline gelatinous substances are formed [46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54]. The XRD patterns showed that the main components of the polymerization products were amorphous structures.…”

Synthesis and characterization of new class of geopolymer hybrid composite materials from industrial wastes

“…Any material that contains aluminosilicate and silica in considerable amounts can act as potential precursor for geopolymerization. Fly ash is an industrial waste that has garnered considerable research (Ahmed et al, 2014;Alzeer and MacKenzie, 2018;Guo et al, 2018;Pappu and Thakur, 2017;Tian et al, 2018) towards geopolymeric materials preparation due to the presence of notable minerals such as mullite (Al 6 Si 2 O 13 ) and quartz (SiO 2 ). Considerable research has been done to utilize fly ash waste to prepare geopolymerization based different construction and building materials.…”