Interactions of Turmeric- and Curcumin-Functionalized Gold Nanoparticles with Human Serum Albumin: Exploration of Protein Corona Formation, Binding, Thermodynamics, and Antifibrillation Studies.

In order to better understand the bioavailability and biocompatibility of polyphenol-assisted surface-modified bioengineered nanoparticles in nanomedicine applications, here, we address a series of photophysical experiments to quantify the binding affinity of serum albumin toward polyphenol-capped gold nanoparticles. For this, two different gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were synthesized via the green synthesis approach, where curcumin and turmeric extract act as reducing as well as capping agents. The size, surface charge, and surface plasmon bands of the AuNPs were highly affected by the adsorption of human serum albumin (HSA) during protein corona formation, which was investigated using dynamic light scattering (DLS), ξ-potential, ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements.