%0 journal article
%@ 0927-7765
%A Melnikova, L., Petrenko, V.I., Avdeev, M.V., Haramus, V.M., Almasy, L., Ivankov, O.I., Bulavin, L.A., Mitroova, Z., Kopcansky, P.

%D 2014
%J Colloids and Surfaces  B

%P 82-88 
%R doi:10.1016/j.colsurfb.2014.08.032
%T Effect of iron oxide loading on magnetoferritin structure in solution as revealed by SAXS and SANS
%U https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfb.2014.08.032
 
%X Synthetic biological macromolecule of magnetoferritin containing an iron oxide core inside a protein shell (apoferritin) is prepared with different content of iron. Its structure in aqueous solution is analysed by small-angle synchrotron X-ray (SAXS) and neutron (SANS) scattering. The loading factor (LF) defined as the average number of iron atoms per protein is varied up to LF = 800. With an increase of the LF, the scattering curves exhibit a relative increase in the total scattered intensity, a partial smearing and a shift of the match point in the SANS contrast variation data. The analysis shows an increase in the polydispersity of the proteins and a corresponding effective increase in the relative content of magnetic material against the protein moiety of the shell with the LF growth. At LFs above ∼150, the apoferritin shell undergoes structural changes, which is strongly indicative of the fact that the shell stability is affected by iron oxide presence.