Journal Article

Protein corona: implications for nanoparticle interactions with pulmonary cells

Lin, Paulo, Kreyling, Wolfgang, Damiani, Flavia, Demokritou, Philip, Brain, Joseph D., Andreozzi, Patrizia, Swami, Archana, Krol, Silke, Donaghey, Thomas C., Konduru, Nagarjun V., Molina, Ramon M., Pyrgiotakis, Georgios

2017

Overview

Background We previously showed that cerium oxide (CeO 2 ), barium sulfate (BaSO 4 ) and zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (NPs) exhibited different lung toxicity and pulmonary clearance in rats. We hypothesize that these NPs acquire coronas with different protein compositions that may influence their clearance from the lungs. Methods CeO 2 , silica-coated CeO 2 , BaSO 4 , and ZnO NPs were incubated in rat lung lining fluid in vitro. Then, gel electrophoresis followed by quantitative mass spectrometry was used to characterize the adsorbed proteins stripped from these NPs. We also measured uptake of instilled NPs by alveolar macrophages (AMs) in rat lungs using electron microscopy. Finally, we tested whether coating of gold NPs with albumin would alter their lung clearance in rats. Results We found that the amounts of nine proteins in the coronas formed on the four NPs varied significantly. The amounts of albumin, transferrin and α-1 antitrypsin were greater in the coronas of BaSO 4 and ZnO than that of the two CeO 2 NPs. The uptake of BaSO 4 in AMs was less than CeO 2 and silica-coated CeO 2 NPs. No identifiable ZnO NPs were observed in AMs. Gold NPs coated with albumin or citrate instilled into the lungs of rats acquired the similar protein coronas and were cleared from the lungs to the same extent. Conclusions We show that different NPs variably adsorb proteins from the lung lining fluid. The amount of albumin in the NP corona varies as does NP uptake by AMs. However, albumin coating does not affect the translocation of gold NPs across the air-blood barrier. A more extensive database of corona composition of a diverse NP library will develop a platform to help predict the effects and biokinetics of inhaled NPs.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Adsorption / Albumin / Albumins / alpha 1-Antitrypsin - metabolism / Alveoli / Animals / Barite / Barium / Barium sulfate / Barium Sulfate - chemistry / Barium Sulfate - metabolism / Barium Sulfate - toxicity / Biokinetics / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biomedicine / Blood-Air Barrier - metabolism / Cerium / Cerium - chemistry / Cerium - metabolism / Cerium - toxicity / Cerium oxides / Citric acid / Coatings / Composition / Coronas / Electron microscopy / Electrophoresis / Engineered nanoparticles / Environmental Health / Fluids / Gel electrophoresis / Gold / Gold - chemistry / Gold - metabolism / Gold - pharmacokinetics / Gold - toxicity / Health aspects / Lung / Lung - metabolism / Lung macrophage / Lungs / Macrophages / Macrophages, Alveolar - metabolism / Male / Mass spectrometry / Mass spectroscopy / Metal Nanoparticles - chemistry / Nanomaterials / Nanoparticles / Nanotechnology / Nanotoxicity / Pharmacology/Toxicology / Pneumology/Respiratory System / Protein Corona / Proteins / Public Health / Rats, Wistar / Serum Albumin, Human - metabolism / Silica / Silicon dioxide / Studies / Sulfates / Surface Properties / Surfactants / Toxicity / Transferrin / Transferrin - metabolism / Transferrins / Translocation / Zinc oxide / Zinc Oxide - chemistry / Zinc Oxide - metabolism / Zinc Oxide - toxicity / Zinc oxides