Assessment of Complement Activation by Nanoparticles: Development of a SPR Based Method and Comparison with Current...

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Nanotoxicology
• Immunology

Background:

• Nanomedicine safety evaluation requires understanding nanomaterial interactions with biological systems.
• The complement system activation by nanomaterials is a key concern for nanomedicine safety.
• Current methods for assessing complement activation have limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) chip for studying complement system activation by nanomaterials.
• To assess the safety of nanomedicines by monitoring complement activation in human serum.
• To compare the developed SPR method with existing techniques like μC-IE and ELISA.

Main Methods:

• Development of a novel SPR chip for real-time analysis of complement activation.
• Testing chip specificity and longevity in complex biological media.
• Incubation of nanoparticles with human serum and assessment of complement fragment release (C3a, iC3b).
• Comparison with microchannel immunoassay (μC-IE) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

Main Results:

• The SPR chip demonstrated consistent C3a release detection upon nanoparticle activation, comparable to μC-IE.
• ELISA showed high non-specific background for iC3b fragment detection.
• Sample preparation, specifically nanoparticle removal before analysis, significantly impacted SPR results, potentially causing false negatives.

Conclusions:

• The developed SPR chip provides an automated and potentially multiplexed platform for assessing nanoparticle-induced complement activation.
• The SPR chip design ensures consistent and reliable results for complement activation by nanoparticles.
• This method aids in the safety assessment of nanomedicines by providing a robust complement activation assay.