Protein Corona Composition of Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles with Various Physico-Chemical Properties and Coatings

Abstract

Because of their biocompatibility and unique magnetic properties, superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles NPs (SPIONs) are recognized as some of the most prominent agents for theranostic applications. Thus, understanding the interaction of SPIONs with biological systems is important for their safe design and efficient applications. In this study, SPIONs were coated with 2 different polymers: polyvinyl alcohol polymer (PVA) and dextran. The obtained NPs with different surface charges (positive, neutral, and negative) were used as a model study of the effect of surface charges and surface polymer materials on protein adsorption using a magnetic separator. We found that the PVA-coated SPIONs with negative and neutral surface charge adsorbed more serum proteins than the dextran-coated SPIONs, which resulted in higher blood circulation time for PVA-coated NPs than the dextran-coated ones. Highly abundant proteins such as serum albumin, serotransferrin, prothrombin, alpha-fetoprotein, and kininogen-1 were commonly found on both PVA- and dextran-coated SPIONs. By increasing the ionic strength, soft- and hard-corona proteins were observed on 3 types of PVA-SPIONs. However, the tightly bound proteins were observed only on negatively charged PVA-coated SPIONs after the strong protein elution.

The influence of surface charge on serum protein interaction and cellular uptake: studies with dendritic polyglycerols and dendritic polyglycerol-coated gold nanoparticles

“…Transferrin has been frequently identified in the protein coronas of several NPs, for example, silver, iron oxide, and silica. [43][44][45] Here we could identify serotransferrin in the corona of dPGS but not in the corona of dPGOH NPs. Serotransferrin can interact with the transferrin receptor and mediate an endocytotic uptake through clathrin-mediated endocytosis.…”

Toxicological Risk Assessment of Emerging Nanomaterials: Cytotoxicity, Cellular Uptake, Effects on Biogenesis and Cell Organelle Activity, Acute Toxicity and Biodistribution of Oxide Nanoparticles

“…For PVA-coated SPIONs, the charge of the polymers also influences the protein corona [45] and is different for the three types of PVA-SPIONs (neutral, positively and negatively charged) incubated in FBS for 1 h at 37°C. We also showed there were important differences between in vitro and in vivo protein coronas [28].…”

The Impact of Nanoparticle Protein Corona on Cytotoxicity, Immunotoxicity and Target Drug Delivery

“…Experimental approaches used to characterize the PC Many studies have revealed the identity [21,35,38,39,42,[59][60][61] and, more recently, also the quantity [28,36,[62][63][64] of the proteins in the PC using proteomics-based approaches coupled with MS. In a typical experimental plan, NPs are incubated in a biological fluid that ideally should replicate the features of the in vivo biological milieu.…”