Proteomic investigation on bio-corona of Au, Ag and Fe nanoparticles for the discovery of triple negative breast cancer serum protein biomarkers

Nowadays, there are no targeted therapeutic modalities for triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). This disease is associated with poor prognosis and worst clinical outcome because of the aggressive nature of the tumor, delayed diagnosis, and non-specific symptoms in the early stages. Therefore, identification of novel specific TNBC serum biomarkers for screening and therapeutic purposes remains an urgent clinical requirement. New user-friendly and cheap methods for biomarker identification are needed, and nanotechnology offers new opportunities. When dispersed in blood, nanoparticles (NPs) are covered by a protein shell termed protein corona (PC). While alterations in protein patterns are challeging to detect by conventional blood analyses, PC acts as a nano-concentrator of serum proteins with affinity for NPs' surface. So, the characterization of PC could allow the detection of otherwise undetectable changes in protein concentration at an early stage of the disease or after chemotherapy or surgery. To explore this research idea, serum samples from 8 triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients and 8 patients without malignancy were allowed to interact with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs: 10.02 +/- 0.91 nm), silver nanoparticles (AgNPs: 9.73 +/- 1.70 nm) and magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs: (9.30 +/- 0.67 nm). Here, in order to identify biomarker candidates in serum of TNBC patients, these nanomaterials were combined with electrophoretic separation (SDS-PAGE) to performed qualitative and quantitative comparisons of the serum proteomes of TNBC patients (n = 8) and healthy controls (n = 8) by liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis. The results were validated through a sequential window acquisition of all theoretical mass spectra (SWATH) analysis, performed in total serum samples (patients and controls) using this approach as a multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) analysis. Significance: It is well known that several proteins presented in human serum are important biomarkers for the diagnosis or prognosis of different diseases, as triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). Determining how nano-materials as gold nanoparticles (AuNPs: 10.02 +/- 0.91 nm), silver nanoparticles (AgNPs: 9.73 +/- 1.70 nm) and magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs: (9.30 +/- 0.67 nm) interact with human serum will assist not only in understanding their effects on the biological system (biocompability and toxicity), but also to obtain information for developing novel nanomaterials with high specificity and selectivity towards proteins with an important biological function (prognostic and diagnostic protein biomarkers).