Shear-induced rotation enhances protein adsorption

Zhengfu Zhang; Kaixuan Lyu; Bo Peng; Hongbo Chen; Quan Chen; Chuanfu Luo; Dapeng Wang

doi:10.1016/j.colsurfb.2025.114508

Shear-induced rotation enhances protein adsorption

Colloids Surf B Biointerfaces. 2025 Jan 8:249:114508. doi: 10.1016/j.colsurfb.2025.114508. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Zhengfu Zhang¹, Kaixuan Lyu², Bo Peng², Hongbo Chen², Quan Chen², Chuanfu Luo³, Dapeng Wang⁴

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jilin, Changchun 130022, PR China; School of Applied Chemistry and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, PR China.
² State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jilin, Changchun 130022, PR China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jilin, Changchun 130022, PR China. Electronic address: luocf@ciac.ac.cn.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jilin, Changchun 130022, PR China; School of Applied Chemistry and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, PR China. Electronic address: wdp@ciac.ac.cn.

PMID: 39799607
DOI: 10.1016/j.colsurfb.2025.114508

Abstract

Theories predicted that shear promotes desorption, but due to the presence of factors such as aggregation effects, it is difficult to observe how shear influences the adsorption and desorption of individual protein molecules. In this study, we employed high-throughput single-molecule tracking and molecular dynamics simulations to investigate how shear flow affects the adsorption kinetics of plasma proteins (including human serum albumin, immunoglobulin G, and fibrinogen) at solid-liquid interfaces. Over the studied shear rate range of 0 - 10³ s^-1, shear stress did not trigger the protein desorption. Notably, we observed a significant increase, up to two orders of magnitude, in the adsorption rate constants k_a, in the dilute limit at solid-liquid interfaces. However, this shear-induced increase in k_a diminished with increasing the protein concentrations. At least in the scenarios studied, these trends were consistent across all three types of proteins and two types of surfaces investigated. Through a systematic analysis combining control experiments, coarse-grained, and all-atom molecular dynamics simulations, we identified that the shear-induced increase in k_a could be attributed to enhanced protein rotational diffusion, thereby increasing the likelihood of favorable surface proximity for adsorption.

Keywords: Molecular dynamics simulations; Protein adsorption; Shear rate; Single-molecule tracking.