Experimental design of size variation in albumin nanoparticles synthesized by electron beam

Abstract

Protein-based nanoparticles are of great interest for theragnostic applications such as cancer treatment and nuclear medicine. Beyond that, plasma proteins are particularly attractive as they can circumvent the rapid clearance of synthetic particles. Human serum albumin (HSA) is already used for diagnosis purposes, such as lymphoscintigraphy and sentinel lymph node detection, and in cancer treatment to deliver therapeutic agents in which the nanoparticulated form is employed. Among the techniques adopted for protein nanoparticle synthesis, ionizing radiation can provide good size control and preserve protein three-dimensional structure. Depending on the reaction precursor, pH, protein concentration, presence of stabilizer, and irradiation dose, it is possible to tailor nanoparticles size and shape. Therefore, this work aimed to find a correlation between albumin nanoparticle size and reaction parameters such as protein concentrations, buffer solution, and e-beam irradiation dose. Different syntheses were performed with varying BSA concentrations, two different buffers, and dose radiation. The nanoparticles were then evaluated by Dynamic Light Scattering, and the data regarding sizes were statistically analyzed by SAS studio, SAS JMP, and WEKA software to obtain any correlation among the synthesis variables. It was mainly possible to observe that smaller protein concentrations always lead to smaller particles and that using Tris-HCl buffer as media provided a more proportional growth of particles according to concentration and dose irradiation increases. Thus, these observations indicate that Tris buffer was more appropriate for BSA nanoparticle synthesis as the increase of albumin concentration and radiation dose led to more homogeneous size control.