Peer-reviewedCC BY-NC-NDNature Communications
Leveraging nanoparticle protein corona to advance plasma proteome profiling
18 affiliations
- 1Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
- 2Department of Chemistry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
- 3Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
- 4Department of Cell and Regenerative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
- 5Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
- 6Human Proteomics Program, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
- 7Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
- 8Melbourne Medical School, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Science, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
- 9The Graeme Clark Institute, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
- 10Children's Heart Institute, McGovern Medical School, UTHealth, Houston, TX, USA
- 11Centre for Nanotechnology in Medicine, Faculty of Biology, Medicine & Health, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
- 12Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain
- 13Institute of Neuroscience, School of Medicine, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- 14Nanomedicine Lab, Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), CSIC and BIST, Campus UAB, Barcelona, Spain
- 15Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
- 16Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia. [email protected]
- 17Department of Radiology, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA. [email protected]
- 18Precision Health Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA. [email protected]
Abstract
The blood plasma proteome is a rich reservoir of potential biomarkers, yet its analysis is hindered by a protein concentration dynamic range exceeding ten orders of magnitude. Traditional fractionation and enrichment methods often present limitations in detecting rare proteins masked by the presence of abundant proteins. A promising frontier technology has emerged to overcome such limitations: leveraging nanoparticle protein coronas to enrich low-abundance plasma proteins and unveil previously inaccessible layers of the proteome. This Perspective highlights the capabilities of the protein corona technology in enhancing proteome coverage, addresses its current limitations and outlines future directions in proteoform analysis and causal inference. Proteomics has long suffered from artifacts and effects due to the wide range of protein concentrations. Here, the authors offer a perspective on the use of nanoparticles to enhance the detection of low-abundance proteins by using the formation of the protein corona.
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BibTeX
@article{saei2026leveraging,
title = {{Leveraging nanoparticle protein corona to advance plasma proteome profiling}},
author = {Amir Ata Saei and Bahareh Ghaffari and Borzoo Bonakdarpour and Liangliang Sun and Ying Ge and David R. Nisbet and Vahid Serpooshan and Kostas Kostarelos and Babak Borhan and Catherine Jones Murphy and Frank Caruso and Morteza Mahmoudi},
journal = {Nature Communications},
year = {2026},
month = jun,
doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-74426-w},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74426-w},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Leveraging nanoparticle protein corona to advance plasma proteome profiling
AU - Amir Ata Saei
AU - Bahareh Ghaffari
AU - Borzoo Bonakdarpour
AU - Liangliang Sun
AU - Ying Ge
AU - David R. Nisbet
AU - Vahid Serpooshan
AU - Kostas Kostarelos
AU - Babak Borhan
AU - Catherine Jones Murphy
AU - Frank Caruso
AU - Morteza Mahmoudi
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/06/15
JO - Nature Communications
DO - 10.1038/s41467-026-74426-w
UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74426-w
AB - The blood plasma proteome is a rich reservoir of potential biomarkers, yet its analysis is hindered by a protein concentration dynamic range exceeding ten orders of magnitude. Traditional fractionation and enrichment methods often present limitations in detecting rare proteins masked by the presence of abundant proteins. A promising frontier technology has emerged to overcome such limitations: leveraging nanoparticle protein coronas to enrich low-abundance plasma proteins and unveil previously inaccessible layers of the proteome. This Perspective highlights the capabilities of the protein corona technology in enhancing proteome coverage, addresses its current limitations and outlines future directions in proteoform analysis and causal inference. Proteomics has long suffered from artifacts and effects due to the wide range of protein concentrations. Here, the authors offer a perspective on the use of nanoparticles to enhance the detection of low-abundance proteins by using the formation of the protein corona.
SN - 2041-1723
ER -