Plasma Protein Corona on Polystyrene Nanoparticles Facilitates their Transfer across the Human Placenta

ABSTRACT: Nanoparticles exposed to biological fluids are rapidly surrounded by proteins. It is known that this formed protein corona influences the interplay of nanoparticles with cells or tissue barriers. In this study, we report the impact of a formed human plasma protein corona on the transfer of 80 nm polystyrene (PS) nanoparticles across the human placenta. We used the human ex-vivo placental perfusion model, as it reflects the intact and physiological tissue barrier between mother and unborn. Our results show an enhanced transfer of polystyrenes, exposed to human plasma, across the placenta compared to bovine serum albumin which served as control setting. We isolated nanoparticles before and after tissue exposure and analyzed their protein corona via shotgun proteomics and LC-MS/MS. The corona profile of particles that crossed the placenta highlighted several proteins as possible drivers for elevated tissue transfer. Subsequently two distinct proteins, human albumin and immunoglobulin G, were selected and incubated with the nanoparticles to form a sole protein corona. Strikingly, the protein corona formed by albumin induced significantly the transfer of polystyrenes across the tissue as compared to corona formed by immunoglobulins. To conclude, our study provides a comparative analysis between different formed protein coronas on nanoparticles and a corona dependent transfer behavior of polystyrenes across placental tissue. Our findings suggest that protein corona analyses of nanoparticles might help to understand better their properties at biological barriers.

INSTRUMENT(S): maXis

ORGANISM(S): Homo Sapiens (human)

TISSUE(S): Placenta

SUBMITTER: Barbara Darnhofer  

LAB HEAD: Ruth Birner-Gruenberger

PROVIDER: PXD018160 | Pride | 2020-08-19

REPOSITORIES: Pride