Biomedikuntzan aplikazio teranostikoak izan ditzaketen rHDL-AuNC konplexu hibridoen garapena

Abstract

Although advances have been made in the diagnosis of diseases and the development of therapies, it is essential to develop more specific approaches so that the transition to personalized medicine can take place. One of the approaches that may be useful for this is nanobiotechnology. This discipline promotes the development of innovative materials, devices, or techniques by taking advantage of the nanoscale manipulation of biological systems and their components. In this regard, hybrid structures composed of apolipoprotein A-1 (ApoA-1) protein and gold nanoclusters (clusters of <100 gold atoms) can provide an innovative perspective. Gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) have interesting properties other than larger nanoparticles, such as fluorescent properties, that can be useful for diagnosis or the following-up of treatments. On the other hand, ApoA-1 is one of the major components of high clinical interest HDL particles ("good" cholesterol) and plays a central role in the process of recapturing excess cholesterol, presenting a therapeutic effect on cardiovascular diseases. Thus, these generated proteo-metallic hybrids can become complexes of great clinical interest, as they can be used as nanotools for both diagnosis and therapy, meaning they provide the ability to develop theragnostic tools. For this purpose, recombinant human-origin ApoA-1 was produced, and ApoA-1-AuNC proteo-metallic hybrids were created using established synthetic methods. Once these compounds were built, they were characterized, and it was confirmed that they could form  recombinant HDL-like nanoplatforms (rHDL-AuNC). In summary, this work has succeeded in creating a new combination between ApoA-1 and AuNCs as a biotechnological advancement. Looking to the future, it will be important to study the biocompatibility of these new hybrids as well as to demonstrate their usefulness in theranostic applications.