Nanoparticle Biomolecular Corona-Based Enrichment of Plasma Glycoproteins for N‑Glycan Profiling and Application in Biomarker Discovery

Biomolecular
corona formation has emerged as a recurring and important
phenomenon in nanomedicine that has been investigated for potential
applications in disease diagnosis. In this study, we have combined
the “personalized protein corona” with the N-glycosylation
profiling that has recently gained considerable interest in human
plasma biomarker discovery as a powerful early warning diagnostic
and patient stratification tool. We envisioned that the protein corona
formation could be exploited as an enrichment step that is critically
important in both proteomic and proteoglycomic workflows. By using
silica nanoparticles, plasma fibrinogen was enriched to a level in
which its proteomic and glycomic “fingerprints” could
be traced with confidence. Despite being a more simplified glycan
profile compared to full plasma, the corona glycan profile revealed
a fibrinogen-derived glycan peak that was found to potentially distinguish
lung cancer patients from controls in a pilot study.