8With due attention to adsorption of proteins on the nanoparticles surface and the formation of 9 nanoparticle-protein corona, investigation of nanoparticles toxicity on the structure of proteins is 10 important. Therefore, this work was done to evaluate toxicity of Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO 11 NPs) on the structure of human serum albumin (HSA) through in vitro and in silico studies. First, 12 ZnO NPs were synthesized using hydrothermal method and their size and morphology were 13 determined by SEM and TEM methods and then to study its toxicity on the HSA structure were 14 used UV-Vis and fluorescence spectroscopy. Also, in order to investigate interaction mechanism 15 of ZnO NP with HSA at the atomistic level was used molecular dynamics (md) simulation. The 16 obtained images from SEM and TEM showed that ZnO NPs were nanosheet with size of less 17 than 40 nm. The results of spectroscopic studies showed ZnO NPs lead to significant 18 conformational changes in the protein's absorption and emission spectra. Moreover, md results 19 showed the minor structure changes in HSA due to interaction with ZnO NP during the 100 ns 20 simulation and the formation of nanoparticle-protein corona complex that is mainly because of 21 electrostatic interactions between charge groups of HSA and ZnO NP.
22Toxicity 24 25 human body, they may interact with biomacromolecules and even biological metabolites due to 32 their nano size and large surface to mass ratio. But, the adsorption of proteins on the surface of 33 NPs and the formation of nanoparticle-protein complex which is known as the nanoparticle-34 protein corona (NP-PC), is unique [2] . On the other hand, adsorption of proteins on the NPs 35 surface may result in structural changes and unfolding of proteins and lead to toxicity [3] . The 36 previous studies showed that the binding of ZnO NPs led to the denaturation of the periplasmic 37 domain of ToxR protein of Vibrio cholerae [4] . Therefore, it is important to study the toxicity of 38 NPs on the structure of proteins to design nanoparticle that do not have toxic effects on the 39 structure of proteins and consequently, on living organisms. In this study, we synthesized ZnO 40 NPs and studied their toxicity on human serum albumin (HSA). These nanoparticles are an 41 important class of commercially applied material and used in diagnostics, therapeutics, drug 42 delivery systems, electronics, cosmetics, personal care products, food additives and pigments and 43 coatings due to their magnetic, catalytic, semiconducting, antimicrobial, ultraviolet protective 44 and binding properties [5] . Moreover, human serum albumin is the most abundant type of plasma 45 protein (3.5 to 5.5 g/dL) with highest electrophoretic mobility, and it has a globular structure 46 with a molecular weight 66.5 kDa, consists of 585 amino acids, 17 disulfide bonds, and only one 47 100 2018 [15] . The crystallographic structure of human serum albumin (PDB ID: 1e7e) was obtained 101 from Protein Data Bank [16] . To understand the mechanism of ZnO NP...