Red Flags and Adversities on the Way to the Robust CE-ICP-MS/MS Quantitative Monitoring of Self-Synthesized Magnetic Iron Oxide(II, III)-Based Nanoparticle Interactions with Human Serum Proteins

Abstract

The growing interest in superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) as potential theranostic agents is related to their unique properties and the broad range of possibilities for their surface functionalization. However, despite the rapidly expanding list of novel SPIONs with potential biomedical applications, there is still a lack of methodologies that would allow in-depth investigation of the interactions of those nanoparticles with biological compounds in human serum. Herein, we present attempts to employ capillary electrophoresis-inductively coupled plasma tandem mass spectrometry (CE-ICP-MS/MS) for this purpose and various obstacles and limitations noticed during the research. The CE and ICP-MS/MS parameters were optimized, and the developed method was used to study the interactions of two different proteins (albumin and transferrin) with various synthesized SPIONs. While the satisfactory resolution between proteins was obtained and the method was applied to examine individual reagents, it was revealed that the conjugates formed during the incubation of the proteins with SPIONs were not stable under the conditions of electrophoretic separation.

Fe3O4 SPIONs in cancer theranostics—structure versus interactions with proteins and methods of their investigation

“…In order to be applied for the investigation of Fe 3 O 4 SPIONs, the CE-ICP-MS/MS method has been optimized so that it would permit a simultaneous determination of sulfur and iron (protein and nanoparticle markers, figure 9) [142]. Later research works have shown a significant effect of the magnetic properties of the nanoparticles on the stability of protein corona formed on the SPIONs surface in the conditions of electrophoretic separation in the case of synthesized SPIONs, which exhibited greater magneticity than commercially available ones (figure 10) [143].…”