In vitro and ex vivo nano-enabled immunomodulation by the protein corona
Francesca Giulimondi1, Luca Digiacomo1, Elisabetta Vulpis1
1Department of Molecular Medicine, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Viale Regina Elena 291, 00161 Rome, Italy. alessandra.zingoni@uniroma1.it.
Abstract:
New technologies with the capacity to tune immune system activity are highly desired in clinical practice and disease management. Here we demonstrate that nanoparticles with a protein corona enriched with gelsolin (GSN), an abundant plasma protein that acts as a modulator of immune responses, are avidly captured by human monocytic THP-1 cells in vitro and by leukocyte subpopulations derived from healthy donors ex vivo. In human monocytes, GSN modulates the production of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) in an inverse dose-dependent manner. Overall, our results suggest that artificial coronas can be exploited to finely tune the immune response, opening new approaches for the prevention and treatment of diseases.
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