Probing Au nanoparticle uptake by enzyme following the digestion of a starch-Au-nanoparticle composite.

In this letter, we report on the digestion of starch, when present as a composite with Au nanoparticles (NPs), by alpha-amylase. It has been observed that the rate of digestion of free starch and that in the composite were identical. Also, the well-established iodine test could be carried out to investigate the kinetics in the presence of Au NPs. The investigations revealed that following the digestion of starch in the composite the NPs were released and subsequently attached to the enzyme only and not to the degraded products of starch. Also, the enzyme attached to NPs, following digestion, retained its catalytic activity. The particle sizes of the NPs were not affected in the process because no agglomeration was observed. Experimental observations indicated the possibility of oriented attachment of alpha-amylase to the NPs in comparison to amyloglucosidase, another digestive enzyme. Finally, we observed a change in the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of the NPs following the digestion of starch in the composite, and thus we could demonstrate that the SPR of the NPs could be used as a direct probe for monitoring the digestion of the composite by the enzyme.