Ayushi Sahu
Sjögren’s syndrome (SS) is an autoimmune disease that affects the salivary and tear glands leading to dry mouth and eyes. This disease can be difficult to diagnose through conventional methods, which are often invasive and expensive. As an alternative, protein biomarkers can be utilized to detect the presence of a disease through non-invasive methods. The purpose of this research project is to develop polymer-based nanoshells with modified functional groups that have a strong affinity for SS proteins. The first goal of this project was to incorporate poly(acrylamide), methacrylic acid, and 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid monomers in an inverse emulsion polymerization process to create charged polymer-coated nanoparticles. The second goal of the project was to add functional groups, such as phenylboronic acids, to the polymer-coated nanoparticles through carbodiimide coupling with 1-Ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide in order to enhance affinity for the target proteins based on amino acid composition or degree of glycosylation. It was hypothesized that if charged groups were added, then it would improve electrostatic interactions between the nano-shell and SS biomarkers and enable better protein binding. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy was utilized to analyze the functional groups in the polymer hydrogels. Polymer and nanoshell particle sizes were evaluated utilizing size and zeta potential measured through dynamic light scattering analysis. Preliminary results of the experiment show that inverse emulsion polymerization is an effective method to develop nanoparticles. In addition, the carboxylic acids have been successfully modified through carbodiimide coupling. This demonstrates the feasibility of creating nanoparticles that can be modified with functional groups in order to interact with specific protein biomarkers. As a result, various protein-related diseases could be diagnosed through the formation of diverse biosensors. Experimental results will be used for the development of gold-nanoshell biosensors detecting Sjögren’s syndrome.
Comments
Thank you for sharing this interesting work! It sounds very promising. Are you planning to be involved in any of the future directions you describe in the poster? —Jeanette Herman
We have started developing protocols based on preliminary testing for protein marker interactions with the polymer coatings on the gold nanoshells. Unfortunately, I will not be able to take part in other future work, because I will be graduating this May. —Ayushi Sahu
Very good! Thanks for sharing this work. —Rob Reichle