In situ analysis of nanoparticle soft corona and dynamic evolution

Didar Baimanov; Jing Wang; Jun Zhang; Ke Liu; Yalin Cong; Xiaomeng Shi; Xiaohui Zhang; Yufeng Li; Xiumin Li; Rongrong Qiao; Yuliang Zhao; Yunlong Zhou; Liming Wang; Chunying Chen

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-33044-y

In situ analysis of nanoparticle soft corona and dynamic evolution

Nat Commun. 2022 Sep 14;13(1):5389. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-33044-y.

Authors

Didar Baimanov^#^{1

2

3

4

5}, Jing Wang^#³, Jun Zhang^{2

4}, Ke Liu^{1

5}, Yalin Cong^{1

4

5}, Xiaomeng Shi³, Xiaohui Zhang³, Yufeng Li^{1

5}, Xiumin Li^{1

5}, Rongrong Qiao^{1

5}, Yuliang Zhao^{1

4

6

7}, Yunlong Zhou^{8

9

10}, Liming Wang^{11

12

13

14}, Chunying Chen^{15

16

17

18}

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Institute of High Energy Physics & National Center for Nanoscience and Technology of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
² Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Tissue Repair Materials, Wenzhou Institute, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wenzhou, 325000, Zhejiang, P. R. China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100191, P. R. China.
⁴ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
⁵ CAS-HKU Joint Laboratory of Metallomics on Health and Environment & National Consortium for Excellence in Metallomics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
⁶ GBA Research Innovation Institute for Nanotechnology, Guangzhou, 510700, Guangdong, P. R. China.
⁷ Research Unit of Nanoscience and Technology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100730, P. R. China.
⁸ Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Tissue Repair Materials, Wenzhou Institute, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wenzhou, 325000, Zhejiang, P. R. China. zhouyl@ucas.ac.cn.
⁹ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China. zhouyl@ucas.ac.cn.
¹⁰ Oujiang Laboratory, Zhejiang Laboratory for Regenerative Medicine, Vision and Brain Health, Wenzhou, 325001, Zhejiang, P. R. China. zhouyl@ucas.ac.cn.
¹¹ CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Institute of High Energy Physics & National Center for Nanoscience and Technology of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China. wangliming@ihep.ac.cn.
¹² State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100191, P. R. China. wangliming@ihep.ac.cn.
¹³ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China. wangliming@ihep.ac.cn.
¹⁴ CAS-HKU Joint Laboratory of Metallomics on Health and Environment & National Consortium for Excellence in Metallomics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China. wangliming@ihep.ac.cn.
¹⁵ CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Institute of High Energy Physics & National Center for Nanoscience and Technology of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China. chenchy@nanoctr.cn.
¹⁶ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China. chenchy@nanoctr.cn.
¹⁷ GBA Research Innovation Institute for Nanotechnology, Guangzhou, 510700, Guangdong, P. R. China. chenchy@nanoctr.cn.
¹⁸ Research Unit of Nanoscience and Technology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100730, P. R. China. chenchy@nanoctr.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

How soft corona, the protein corona's outer layer, contributes to biological identity of nanomaterials is largely because capturing protein composition of the soft corona in situ remains challenging. We herein develop an in situ Fishing method that can monitor the dynamic formation of protein corona on ultra-small chiral Cu₂S nanoparticles (NPs) allowing us to directly separate and identify the corona protein composition. Our method detects spatiotemporal processes in the evolution of hard and soft coronas on chiral NPs, revealing subtle differences in NP - protein interactions even within several minutes. This study highlights the importance of in situ and dynamic analysis of soft/hard corona, provides insights into the role of soft corona in mediating biological responses of NPs, and offers a universal strategy to characterize soft corona to guide the rational design of biomedical nanomaterials.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Nanoparticles*
Nanostructures*
Protein Corona*
Proteins

Substances

Protein Corona
Proteins