Abstract
Biomolecules, and particularly proteins, bind on nanoparticle (NP) surfaces to form the so-called protein corona. It is accepted that the corona drives the biological distribution and toxicity of NPs. Here, the corona composition and structure were studied using silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) of different sizes interacting with soluble yeast protein extracts. Adsorption isotherms showed that the amount of adsorbed proteins varied greatly upon NP size with large NPs having more adsorbed proteins per surface unit. The protein corona composition was studied using a large-scale label-free proteomic approach, combined with statistical and regression analyses. Most of the proteins adsorbed on the NPs were the same, regardless of the size of the NPs. To go beyond, the protein physicochemical parameters relevant for the adsorption were studied: electrostatic interactions and disordered regions are the main driving forces for the adsorption on SiNPs but polypeptide sequence length seems to be an important factor as well. This article demonstrates that curvature effects exhibited using model proteins are not determining factors for the corona composition on SiNPs, when dealing with complex biological media.
Highlights
Nanoparticles (NPs) are being used in all kinds of everyday consumer products such as food, cosmetics, or medicine [1]
The corona composition and structure were studied using silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) of different sizes interacting with soluble yeast protein extracts
Nanoparticle geometry was characterised using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). This in situ technique was preferred to transmission electron microscopy as it can be performed in solution and is not susceptible to sampling biases
Summary
Nanoparticles (NPs) are being used in all kinds of everyday consumer products such as food, cosmetics, or medicine [1] Even though those NPs are deemed safe by many national authorities, their ability to be internalized [2,3] and translocated from an organ to another [4,5] raises concern about potential harmful effects. It is established that the main reason for these pernicious effects comes from the capacity of NPs to interact with biomolecules, mainly proteins, found in their surroundings These latter form a so-called “protein corona” on NPs’ surfaces [11]. The composition of this corona can lead to detrimental effects regarding the target specificity of nano-carriers used in nanomedicine [16] It could be used as a strategy to develop NPs based therapeutic approach targeting specific cellular pathways [17]
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