Mechanistic insights into toxicity pathways induced by nanomaterials in Daphnia magna from analysis of the composition of the acquired protein corona

Laura Bradford, Iseult Lynch*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

188 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Identifying proteins present on the surface of nanomaterials (NMs) incubated with plasma, serum, and cell lysates can offer insights into the biological interactions of the NMs, including uptake and toxicity. Organisms such as Daphnia magna respond to the presence of toxicants by secreting proteins and other biomolecules; we demonstrate that the eco-corona acquired during exposure to NMs can provide similar important insights regarding the mechanistic pathways induced by the NM exposure as part of an ecotoxicity assessment. Using freshly dispersed (pristine) and ‘medium aged’ NMs (as environmental pollutants), differing in core material, size and surface properties, the influence of NM physicochemical characteristics and exposure environment on the protein corona composition and potential for in vivo uptake by the model test species Daphnia magna are investigated. Surface bound protein corona compositions changed between NM type, NM ‘age’ and the environmental medium in which the NMs were incubated, thus changing the NM biological identity and interactions. Proteins identified on the freshly dispersed NM surfaces were largely associated with metabolic damage, DNA damage, mitochondrial breakdown and energy processes, all of which are associated with cytotoxic damage. Significantly fewer proteins were bound to the aged NMs in all medium conditions, compared to the freshly dispersed NMs. Proteins bound only to the aged NMs were involved in calcium ion binding and cell redox homeostasis, indicative of significantly lower toxic responses to the aged NMs. Thus, NM protein corona composition can facilitate detection of organism responses to NM exposure and potentially identification of the molecular initiating events in adverse outcome pathways.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3343-3359
Number of pages17
JournalEnvironmental Science: Nano
Volume7
Issue number11
Early online date4 Sept 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was funded via a NERC highlight topic grant (NE/ N006569/1). The authors acknowledge use of the Functional Genomics and Proteomics Laboratories at the University of Birmingham. Additional support from the H2020 project NanoSolveIT (Grant Agreement No. 814572) is acknowledged, and the data are deposited in the NanoCommons (Grant Agreement No. 731032) Knowledge Base.

Publisher Copyright:
© The Royal Society of Chemistry.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Materials Science (miscellaneous)
  • General Environmental Science

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Mechanistic insights into toxicity pathways induced by nanomaterials in Daphnia magna from analysis of the composition of the acquired protein corona'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this