Proteomic exploration of soft and hard biocorona onto PEGylated multiwalled carbon nanotubes

Influence of albumin concentration on surface characteristics and cellular responses in the pre-incubation of multi-walled carbon nanotubes

Reliable characterization of protein coronas (PCs) that form when nanomaterials are introduced into biological fluids is a critical step in the development of safe and efficient nanomedicine. We observed that bovine serum albumin (BSA)-coated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) do not induce cytotoxicity, but have different cellular uptake rates depending on the BSA pretreatment concentration. To determine how these slight differences affect A549 cell responses and intracellular changes, we conducted spectroscopic (circular dichroism and Fourier-transform infrared) and spectrometric (nanoflow liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry) analyses. The various characterization techniques conducted in this study reveal the following. (i) The composition ratio of PCs on MWCNTs differs depending on the BSA concentration. (ii) Analysis of the secondary structure of the proteins revealed that the α-helix structure increased with increasing BSA concentration. (iii) Proteomic analysis showed that different biological pathways were activated at levels higher and lower than 5 mg mL-1. Such combined spectroscopic and spectrometric approaches provide an integrated understanding of PC composition as well as how nano/bio-interface states are linked to cellular-level responses. Our results can support reliable and practical applications of nanomedicine development.

Modulating the toxicity of engineered nanoparticles by controlling protein corona formation: Recent advances and future prospects

With the rapid development and widespread application of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs), understanding the fundamental interactions between ENPs and biological systems is essential to assess and predict the fate of ENPs in vivo. When ENPs are exposed to complex physiological environments, biomolecules quickly and inevitably adsorb to ENPs to form a biomolecule corona, such as a protein corona (PC). The formed PC has a significant effect on the physicochemical properties of ENPs and gives them a brand new identity in the biological environment, which determines the subsequent ENP-cell/tissue/organ interactions. Controlling the formation of PCs is therefore of utmost importance to accurately predict and optimize the behavior of ENPs within living organisms, as well as ensure the safety of their applications. In this review, we provide an overview of the fundamental aspects of the PC, including the formation mechanism, composition, and frequently used characterization techniques. We comprehensively discuss the potential impact of the PC on ENP toxicity, including cytotoxicity, immune response, and so on. Additionally, we summarize recent advancements in manipulating PC formation on ENPs to achieve the desired biological outcomes. We further discuss the challenges and prospects, aiming to provide valuable insights for a better understanding and prediction of ENP behaviors in vivo, as well as the development of low-toxicity ENPs.

Nanoinformatics based insights into the interaction of blood plasma proteins with carbon based nanomaterials: Implications for biomedical applications

In the past three decades, interest in using carbon-based nanomaterials (CBNs) in biomedical application has witnessed remarkable growth. Despite the rapid advancement, the translation of laboratory experimentation to clinical applications of nanomaterials is one of the major challenges. This might be attributed to poor understanding of bio-nano interface. Arguably, the most significant barrier is the complexity that arises by interplay of several factors like properties of nanomaterial (shape, size, surface chemistry), its interaction with suspending media (surface hydration and dehydration, surface reconstruction and release of free surface energy) and the interaction with biomolecules (conformational change in biomolecules, interaction with membrane and receptor). Tailoring a nanomaterial that minimally interacts with protein and lipids in the medium while effectively acts on target site in biological milieu has been very difficult. Computational methods and artificial intelligence techniques have displayed potential in effectively addressing this problem. Through predictive modelling and deep learning, computer-based methods have demonstrated the capability to create accurate models of interactions between nanoparticles and cell membranes, as well as the uptake of nanomaterials by cells. Computer-based simulations techniques enable these computational models to forecast how making particular alterations to a material's physical and chemical properties could enhance functional aspects, such as the retention of drugs, the process of cellular uptake and biocompatibility. We review the most recent progress regarding the bio-nano interface studies between the plasma proteins and CBNs with a special focus on computational simulations based on molecular dynamics and density functional theory.

Formation and detection of biocoronas in the food industry and their fate in the human body

The rapid advancement of nanotechnology has opened up new avenues for applications in all stages of the food industry. Over the past decade, extensive research has emphasized that when nanoparticles (NPs) enter organisms, they spontaneously adsorbed biomolecules, leading to the formation of biocorona. This paper provided a detailed review of the process of biocorona formation in the food industry, including their classification and influencing factors. Additionally, various characterization methods to investigated the morphology and structure of biocoronas were introduced. As a real state of food industry nanoparticles in biological environments, the biocorona causes structural transformations of biomolecules bound to NPs, thus affecting their fate in the body. It can either promote or inhibit enzyme activity in the human environment, and may also positively or negatively affect the cellular uptake and toxicity of NPs. Since NPs present in the food industry will inevitably enter the human body, further investigations on biocoronas will offer valuable insights and perspectives on the safety of incorporating more NPs into the food industry.

Formulation and characterization of cisplatin-loaded hydroxyl functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes for targeting gastric cancer stem cells

Chemotherapy is the most commonly used therapeutic method for treating many malignancies including gastric cancer. Due to their non-specific and non-targeted drug delivery, it causes resistance leading to cancer progression, relapse, and metastasis of cancer. To overcome this problem we carried out a study aimed to develop a new cisplatin (Cisp) loaded hydroxyl functionalized single-walled carbon nanotube (OH-SWCNT) nanocarrier system to selectively eliminate gastric cancer stem cells. To our understanding, this is the first study of the non-covalent interaction of cisplatin loaded on the surface of hydroxyl-functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes by ultrasonication. The physical and morphological characterization was carried out by UV-Vis, FTIR spectroscopy, and TEM. A sustained and controlled release of cisp from OH-SWCNT at all three pHs 3.5, 5.5, and 7.4 was observed. Gastric cancer stem cells were isolated from primary cells and were identified by using CD133+ and CD44+ specific markers. Cisplatin-loaded OH-SWCNT nanocarrier was capable of limiting the self-renewal capacity of both CD133+ and CD44+ populations and also decreasing the number of tumorspheres in gastric CSCs. The cell viability percent of AGS cells was 20% at 250 μg/ml concentration. The IC50 value was less than 50% mol/L at both 200 μg/ml and 250 μg/ml of cisplatin-loaded OH-SWCNT. Our findings suggest that cisplatin-loaded OH-SWCNT nanocarrier complexes could target gastric CSCs and also could provide a potential strategy for selectively targeting and efficiently eliminating gastric CSCs. This could be a promising approach to prevent gastric cancer recurrence and metastasis and also improve gastric cancer therapy.

The D-amino acid oxidase-carbon nanotubes: evaluation of cytotoxicity and biocompatibility of a potential anticancer nanosystem

The 'enzyme prodrug therapy' represents a promising strategy to overcome limitations of current cancer treatments by the systemic administration of prodrugs, converted by a foreign enzyme into an active anticancer compound directly in tumor sites. One example is D-amino acid oxidase (DAAO), a dimeric flavoenzyme able to catalyze the oxidative deamination of D-amino acids with production of hydrogen peroxide, a reactive oxygen species (ROS), able to favor cancer cells death. A DAAO variant containing five aminoacidic substitutions (mDAAO) was demonstrated to possess a better therapeutic efficacy under low O2 concentration than wild-type DAAO (wtDAAO). Recently, aiming to design promising nanocarriers for DAAO, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were functionalized with polyethylene glycol (PEG) to reduce their tendency to aggregation and to improve their biocompatibility. Here, wtDAAO and mDAAO were adsorbed on PEGylated MWCNTs and their activity and cytotoxicity were tested. While PEG-MWCNTs-DAAOs have shown a higher activity than pristine MWCNTs-DAAO (independently on the DAAO variant used), PEG-MWCNTs-mDAAO showed a higher cytotoxicity than PEG-MWCNTs-wtDAAO at low O2 concentration. In order to evaluate the nanocarriers' biocompatibility, PEG-MWCNTs-DAAOs were incubated in human serum and the composition of protein corona was investigated via nLC-MS/MS, aiming to characterize both soft and hard coronas. The mDAAO variant has influenced the bio-corona composition in both number of proteins and presence of opsonins and dysopsonins: notably, the soft corona of PEG-MWCNTs-mDAAO contained less proteins and was more enriched in proteins able to inhibit the immune response than PEG-MWCNTs-wtDAAO. Considering the obtained results, the PEGylated MWCNTs conjugated with the mDAAO variant seems a promising candidate for a selective antitumor oxidative therapy: under anoxic-like conditions, this novel drug delivery system showed a remarkable cytotoxic effect controlled by the substrate addition, against different tumor cell lines, and a bio-corona composition devoted to prolong its blood circulation time, thus improving the drug's biodistribution.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13205-023-03568-1.