Analysis of the Human Plasma Proteome Using Multi‐Nanoparticle Protein Corona for Detection of Alzheimer's Disease

Posted by Adam Awdish on Mar 30, 2021

Single Donor Human Alzheimer's Plasma and Single Donor Human Plasma (Blood Derived) from Innovative Research were used in the following study:

Analysis of the Human Plasma Proteome Using Multi‐Nanoparticle Protein Corona for Detection of Alzheimer's Disease

Claudia Corbo, Andrew A. Li, Hossein Poustchi, Gha Young Lee, Sabrina Stacks, Roberto Molinaro, Philip Ma, Theo Platt, Shahed Behzadi, Robert Langer, Vivek Farias, and Omid C. Farokhzad

Advanced Healthcare Materials
November 9, 2020

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a form of dementia that affects roughly 10% of the population over the age of 65 with the number of diagnosed cases increasing each year. Current methods for diagnosing AD are both invasive and costly, and the disease causes major cognitive disruptions. Contemporary research hypothesizes that AD begins to develop 20-30 years before diagnosis later in life, making the development of accurate tools for early diagnosis a clinical priority.

Currently, the most common method of diagnosing AD requires a lumbar puncture to measure the levels of several biomarkers in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), as no single biomarker has been identified to date that can accurately diagnose AD on its own. One appealing possibility for an alternative method of diagnosis is to analyze a patient’s plasma and serum and observe the Nanoparticles (NPs) in the blood. NPs interact with a wide range of molecules, specifically proteins, which are absorbed onto the surface of the NP to form a layer known as a protein corona (PC). The PC changes the perceived biological identity of the NP and how biomolecules interact with it.

Studies have shown that a variety of diseases can cause changes in the plasma proteome, which can affect the composition of PC to reflect a specific disease. Therefore, characterizing disease-specific PCs may be a viable tool for the early detection of PC variations in patients with AD. In this study, researchers were able to identify subtle changes in plasma protein patterns to suggest presence of AD with an accuracy of about 92%.