Red blood cell (RBC)-derived systems offer a potential platform for delivery of biomedical cargos. Although the importance of specific proteins associated with the biodistribution and pharmacokinetics of these particles has been recognized, it remains to be explored whether some of the key transmembrane and cytoskeletal proteins responsible for immune-modulatory effects and mechanical integrity of the particles are retained. Herein, using sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and quantitative tandem mass tag mass spectrometry in conjunction with bioinformatics analysis, we have examined the proteomes of micro- and nanosized erythrocyte ghosts doped with indocyanine green and compared them with those of RBCs. We identified a total of 884 proteins in each set of RBCs, micro-, and nanosized particles, of which 8 and 45 proteins were expressed at significantly different relative abundances when comparing micro-sized particles vs RBCs and nanosized particles vs RBCs, respectively. We found greater differences in relative abundances of some mechano-modulatory proteins, such as band 3 and protein 4.2, and immunomodulatory proteins like CD44, CD47, and CD55 in nanosized particles as compared to RBCs. Our findings highlight that the methods utilized in fabricating RBC-based systems can induce substantial effects on their proteomes. Mass spectrometry data are available at ProteomeXchange with the identifier PXD038780.
Keywords: bioinformatics; drug delivery; erythrocyte; tandem mass spectrometry.