Understanding surface-adsorption of proteins: the Vroman effect

TL;DR

This study uses molecular dynamics simulations to analyze the Vroman effect, revealing complex competitive adsorption behaviors of proteins on surfaces, and demonstrating how this effect can be understood, controlled, and inverted.

Contribution

It provides a detailed simulation-based analysis of the Vroman effect, offering insights into controlling protein adsorption on surfaces.

Findings

Proteins exhibit non-monotonic adsorption behavior over time.

Small and large proteins can compete differently depending on conditions.

The Vroman effect can be manipulated and reversed.

Abstract

It is now well accepted that cellular responses to materials in a biological medium reflect greatly the adsorbed biomolecular layer, rather than the material itself. Here, we study by molecular dynamic simulations the competitive protein adsorption on a surface (Vroman effect), i.e. the non-monotonic behavior of the amount of protein adsorbed on a surface in contact with plasma as a function of contact time and plasma concentration. We find a complex behavior, with regimes during which small and large proteins are not necessarily competing between them, but are both competing with others in solution. We show how the effect can be understood, controlled and inverted.