The cellular response and molecular mechanism of superoxide dismutase interacting with superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles

This study explored the response of superoxide dismutase (SOD) under superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs)-induced oxidative stress using combined cellular and molecular methods. Results found that SPIONs induced the inhibition of catalase activity, the U-inverted change of SOD activity and the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), leading to oxidative damage and cytotoxicity. The change of intracellular SOD activity was resulted from the increase of molecular activity induced by directly interacting with SPIONs and ROS-inhibition of activity. The increase of molecular activity could be attributed to the structural and conformational changes of SOD, which were caused by the direct interaction of SOD with SPIONs. The SOD-SPIONs interaction and its interacting mechanism were explored by multi-spectroscopy, isothermal titration calorimetry and zeta potential assays. SOD binds to SPIONs majorly via hydrophobic forces with the involvement of electrostatic forces. SPIONs approximately adsorb 11 units of SOD molecule with the binding affinity of 2.99 × 10⁶ M⁻¹. The binding sites on SOD were located around Tyr residues, whose hydrophilicity increased upon interacting with SPIONs. The binding to SPIONs loosened the peptide chains, changed the secondary structure and reduced the aggregation state of SOD.