Abstract
The biological identity of nanoparticles (NPs) is established by their interactions with a wide range of biomolecules around their surfaces after exposure to biological media. Understanding the true nature of the biomolecular corona (BC) in its native state is, therefore, essential for its safe and efficient application in clinical settings. The fundamental challenge is to visualize the biomolecules within the corona and their relationship/association to the surface of the NPs. Using a synergistic application of cryo-electron microscopy, cryo-electron tomography, and three-dimensional reconstruction, we revealed the unique morphological details of the biomolecules and their distribution/association with the surface of polystyrene NPs at a nanoscale resolution. The analysis of the BC at a single NP level and its variability among NPs in the same sample, and the discovery of the presence of nonspecific biomolecules in plasma residues, enable more precise characterization of NPs, improving predictions of their safety and efficacies.
Highlights
The biological identity of nanoparticles (NPs) is established by their interactions with a wide range of biomolecules around their surfaces after exposure to biological media
Among the biomolecules involved in forming the biomolecular corona (BC), proteins are the most-studied owing to their function in a wide range of cellular activities and analysis by techniques such as liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectroscopy (LC-MS/MS)[5]
The objective of the current study is to investigate the morphological details of the biomolecules and their distribution and association with the surface of carboxylated polystyrene NPs (PS-COOH NPs) at the nanometer scale using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), cryo-electron tomography, and image analysis
Summary
The biological identity of nanoparticles (NPs) is established by their interactions with a wide range of biomolecules around their surfaces after exposure to biological media. Kokkinopoulou et al.[9], for example, applied transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to visualize and discriminate between the soft and hard corona. These authors showed the BC is an undefined and loose network of proteins. The objective of the current study is to investigate the morphological details of the biomolecules and their distribution and association with the surface of carboxylated polystyrene NPs (PS-COOH NPs) at the nanometer scale using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), cryo-EM, cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET), and image analysis
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