Revising Protein Corona Characterization and Combining ITC and Nano-DSC to Understand the Interaction of Proteins With Porous Nanoparticles.

Alba Balmori,Alina Botea-Petcu,Daniela Gheorghe,Aurica Precupas,Salvador Borrós,Speranta Tanasescu,David Sánchez-García,Romica Sandu

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2021.650281

Abstract

The exposure of nanoparticles (NPs) to biological fluids leads to the formation of a protein coating that is known as protein corona (PC). Since PC formation is influenced by the physicochemical properties of the nanoparticles, the understanding of the interplay of the factors that participate in this process is crucial for the development of nanomaterials as cell-targeted delivery vehicles. In general, it is accepted that the PC formation is a complex and dynamic process, which depends on the composition of the medium and the properties of the NP mainly size, shape, and superficial charge. Interestingly, although the interaction between the protein and the NP is essentially a superficial phenomenon, the influence of the roughness of the nanoparticle surface has been scarcely studied. In this work, the influence of superficial roughness and porosity has been studied with the aid of nanodifferential scanning calorimetry (nano-DSC) and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) using mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) as an NP model. The interaction process of the proteins with the NP surface was analyzed by ITC measurements, while the stability and denaturation of the proteins was monitored by nano-DSC. Thanks to the complementarity of these two techniques, a more complete insight into the PC formation on the pores has been accomplished.

Highlights

In recent years, significant efforts have been drawn focusing on designing nanoenabled drug delivery and biocompatible therapeutically active agents
isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) is a powerful technique, which can measure interaction heats with a great accuracy, and allows a full description of thermodynamic parameters arising from the binding interaction (Nasir et al, 2015)
Suspensions of four types of nanoparticles with different pore sizes S1, S3, S6, S7, and nanoparticles without pore (S112) used as a control were titrated with a solution of Human serum albumin (HSA) in water

Summary

Introduction

Significant efforts have been drawn focusing on designing nanoenabled drug delivery and biocompatible therapeutically active agents. These systems offer many advantages in drug delivery, such as improved efficacy, biosafety, and stability of the drugs. (Hamidi et al, 2008; Mudshinge et al, 2011; Singh and Lillard, 2012; Balcells et al, 2019). (Lynch and Dawson, 2008; Gao and He, 2014). This coating on the NP’s surface is known as the protein corona (PC). Depending on the affinity of the protein absorbed, this coating is known as the “hard” corona when the affinity is high and the proteins are tightly bound or “soft” corona consisting of loosely bound proteins, probably

Methods

Results

Conclusion