Curvature-dependent effects of nanotopography on classical immune complement activation

The aim of this study was to investigate how the size of nanosized surface features affect classical immune complement activation through adsorption of IgG and the following binding of C1q. By using model surfaces with immobilized SiO₂ nanoparticles of different sizes (8, 32 and 68 nm in diameter), three different curvatures with the same chemistry was systematically studied and analyzed using the acoustic sensing technique; Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation Monitoring (QCM-D). Circular Dichroism (CD) was employed to study any changes in the secondary structure of IgG using a methodology with stacked functionalized substrates. Our results show that the amount of IgG adsorption increased slightly with nanoparticle size, but also showed a strong size/curvature-dependent effect on the following C1q binding, with the highest binding to IgG adsorbed on the largest nanoparticles and a smooth control surface, indicating that classical immune complement activation possibly increase with decreasing curvature. We conclude that the difference in C1q binding was not due to changes in the secondary structure of IgG, suggesting that geometrical arrangement of adsorbed IgG is the determining factor. Statement of significance We have shown that small changes at the topographical nanoscale can give large effects on the initiation of the classical immune complement cascade, an important immunological reaction that take place when a foreign material is inserted in the body. By developing a methodology using silicon dioxide nanoparticles with three different sizes, to systematically study their impact on the secondary structure and binding of human immunoglobulin G (IgG) to the initiator protein C1q of the classical complement cascade, we have shown that the initiation of the classical immune complement is hampered by the sharp curvature of the smaller nanoparticles. We conclude that this is not mediated by changes in the secondary structure of the adsorbed proteins, but rather an effect of curvature-induced spatial mismatch. The results provide a possible mechanistic explanation on how nanotopography may effect protein adsorption and protein cascade events.