Machine learning predicts the functional composition of the protein corona and the cellular recognition of nanoparticles

The protein corona affects the clinical applications, organ targeting, and safety assessment of nanomaterials, and prediction of the protein corona would be valuable for the design of ideal nanomaterials. However, no methods to predict the protein corona are available. Overcoming the numerous quantitative and qualitative factors influencing corona formation, the present work builds models that precisely predict the functional composition of the protein corona and the cell recognition of nanoparticles (NPs) integrating machine learning and meta-analysis. This workflow provides an effective method to predict the functional composition of the protein corona that determines cell recognition to guide the synthesis and applications of NPs.

Protein corona formation is critical for the design of ideal and safe nanoparticles (NPs) for nanomedicine, biosensing, organ targeting, and other applications, but methods to quantitatively predict the formation of the protein corona, especially for functional compositions, remain unavailable. The traditional linear regression model performs poorly for the protein corona, as measured by R² (less than 0.40). Here, the performance with R² over 0.75 in the prediction of the protein corona was achieved by integrating a machine learning model and meta-analysis. NPs without modification and surface modification were identified as the two most important factors determining protein corona formation. According to experimental verification, the functional protein compositions (e.g., immune proteins, complement proteins, and apolipoproteins) in complex coronas were precisely predicted with good R² (most over 0.80). Moreover, the method successfully predicted the cellular recognition (e.g., cellular uptake by macrophages and cytokine release) mediated by functional corona proteins. This workflow provides a method to accurately and quantitatively predict the functional composition of the protein corona that determines cellular recognition and nanotoxicity to guide the synthesis and applications of a wide range of NPs by overcoming limitations and uncertainty.

Dual function of macrophage galactose/N-acetylgalactosamine-specific lectins: glycoprotein uptake and tumoricidal cellular recognition

We investigated whether the interaction of peritoneal macrophages with extracellular ligands is mediated by C-type lectins specific for galactose and N-acetylgalactosamine. The carbohydrate-binding domain of mouse galactose/N-acetylgalactosamine-specific lectin was prepared in a recombinant form. The purified recombinant lectins were tested for competitive inhibition against glycoprotein uptake and against tumoricidal effect. Thioglycolate-elicited macrophages internalized galactosylated bovine serum albumin in vitro. The internalization was blocked by recombinant macrophage lectins. Activated macrophages obtained after intraperitoneal injection of a nonspecific immune potentiator, OK432, did not internalize galactosylated bovine serum albumin. These cells elicited a cytotoxic effect against P815 murine mastocytoma cells, and the effect was blocked by recombinant macrophage lectins. These results indicated that galactose/N-acetylgalactosamine-specific C-type lectins expressed on the surface of inflammatory macrophages and on activated tumoricidal macrophages mediate two distinct functions, i.e. glycoprotein uptake and tumoricidal effector mechanisms.

Molecular complementarity of yeast glycoprotein mating factors

Cell fusion between opposite mating types 5 and 21 of the yeast Hansenula wingei is initiated by a strong sexual agglutination reaction. The mating factors responsible for the specificity of cellular recognition are complementary glycoproteins which form a physical complex in vitro. The complex is assayed by recovery of agglutination activity of the multivalent 5-factor after the univalent 21-factor has been inactivated by treatment of the complex with alkali. The 5-factor.21-factor complex, purified on Sepharose 6B, is large (several million daltons) and heterogeneous. The three peaks of 5-factor activity contain a number of combining sites proportional to molecular size.