Ricerc@Sapienza

Following exposure to biological fluids (e.g., serum, plasma, cerebral spinal fluid), nanoparticles (NPs) interact with thousands of different biomolecules such as human plasma (HP) proteins, lipids and sugars, which adsorb on their surface and form an outer layer referred to as "protein corona" (PC). Noteworthy, these PC surrounding nanomaterials do not merely reflect the composition of the human proteome, but they mostly depend on its alterations. This may be relevant for early cancer detection where changes in the abundance of typical biomarkers are the hallmark of several types of cancer since the human proteome evolves as the disease progresses. Recent advances in nanotechnology have demonstrated that exposing nanomaterials to HP obtained from healthy subjects and patients with various diseases, induced considerable alterations in the corona profile of NPs. Thus, nanomaterials incubated with plasma proteins of individuals with different physiological conditions generate PCs with different compositions. Among nanomaterials under development for in vitro diagnostic testing, Graphene Oxide (GO) is regarded as one of the most promising ones due to its intrinsic properties and peculiar behaviour in biological environments. By taking advantage of these considerations, in the proposed project, we aim to develop an innovative PC-based blood test for early cancer detection based on the characterization of the PC that forms around GO nanoflakes. The proposed approach rely on the overall evaluation of the protein pattern by means of sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE).We envision that a systematic investigation of a PC-based technology may improve our knowledge of several cancer biology and may offer new opportunities for cancer detection and biomarkers identification.