Aqueous nickel-nitrilotriacetate modified Fe3O4–NH3+ nanoparticles for protein purification and cell targeting

A comprehensive totally aqueous phase synthesis of nickel-nitrilotriacetate (Ni-NTA) modified superparamagnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles is presented. The Fe3O4-NTA?Ni nanoparticles are able to perform efficient and specific purification of 6-His tagged proteins from crude cell lysates, as evidenced by sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and Western blot analysis. The average binding capacity, as demonstrated by streptopain (MW 42?kDa), is 0.23?mg/mg (protein/Fe3O4-NTA?Ni). Considering the high affinity and specificity of the binding between hexahistidine motif and Ni-NTA, Ni-NTA modified nanoparticles could act as a module to carry 6-His tagged proteins on the particle surface with molecular orientation control, since only the 6-His domain could be attached. These modularly designed functional nanoparticles enhance cancer cell targeting, as supported by the in vitro receptor mediated targeting assay using RGD-4C-6-His fusion peptide. The nanoparticles show no significant hemolysis for human blood and could be investigated further for their in vivo functional imaging applications.