Magnetic transferrin nanoparticles (MTNs) assay as a novel isolation approach for exosomal biomarkers in neurological diseases

• Published in: Biomaterials research Vol. 27; no. 1; p. 12
• Main Authors: Jang, Yoon Ok, Ahn, Hee-Sung, Dao, Thuy Nguyen Thi, Hong, JeongYeon, Shin, Wangyong, Lim, Young-Min, Chung, Sun Ju, Lee, Jae-Hong, Liu, Huifang, Koo, Bonhan, Kim, Myoung Gyu, Kim, Kyunggon, Lee, Eun-Jae, Shin, Yong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 16.02.2023; BioMed Central; American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); 한국생체재료학회
• Subjects: Analysis; Biological markers; Biomarkers; Biopsy; Blood; Body fluids; Brain damage; Brain-derived blood exosome; Cancer; Chromatography; Dementia; Dementia disorders; Development and progression; Diagnosis; Electrostatic properties; Ethanol; Exosomes; Extracellular vesicle; Extracellular vesicles; Ligands; Liquid chromatography; Liquid chromatography − mass spectrometry; Magnetic nanoparticle; Mass spectrometry; Movement disorders; Multiple sclerosis; Nanoparticles; Nervous system diseases; Neurodegenerative diseases; Neurological disease; Neurological diseases; Parkinson's disease; Proteins; Proteomics; Scanning electron microscopy; Scientific imaging; Statistical analysis; Transferrin; Transferrins; 의공학; Magnetic nanoparticle; Liquid chromatography − mass spectrometry; Neurological disease; Extracellular vesicle; Brain-derived blood exosome
• ISSN: 1226-4601; 2055-7124; 2055-7124
• DOI: 10.1186/s40824-023-00353-2

Brain-derived exosomes released into the blood are considered a liquid biopsy to investigate the pathophysiological state, reflecting the aberrant heterogeneous pathways of pathological progression of the brain in neurological diseases. Brain-derived blood exosomes provide promising prospects for the diagnosis of neurological diseases, with exciting possibilities for the early and sensitive diagnosis of such diseases. However, the capability of traditional exosome isolation assays to specifically isolate blood exosomes and to characterize the brain-derived blood exosomal proteins by high-throughput proteomics for clinical specimens from patients with neurological diseases cannot be assured. We report a magnetic transferrin nanoparticles (MTNs) assay, which combined transferrin and magnetic nanoparticles to isolate brain-derived blood exosomes from clinical samples. The principle of the MTNs assay is a ligand-receptor interaction through transferrin on MTNs and transferrin receptor on exosomes, and electrostatic interaction via positively charged MTNs and negatively charged exosomes to isolate brain-derived blood exosomes. In addition, the MTNs assay is simple and rapid (< 35 min) and does not require any large instrument. We confirmed that the MTNs assay accurately and efficiently isolated exosomes from serum samples of humans with neurodegenerative diseases, such as dementia, Parkinson's disease (PD), and multiple sclerosis (MS). Moreover, we isolated exosomes from serum samples of 30 patients with three distinct neurodegenerative diseases and performed unbiased proteomic analysis to explore the pilot value of brain-derived blood protein profiles as biomarkers. Using comparative statistical analysis, we found 21 candidate protein biomarkers that were significantly different among three groups of neurodegenerative diseases. The MTNs assay is a convenient approach for the specific and affordable isolation of extracellular vesicles from body fluids for minimally-invasive diagnosis of neurological diseases.