Identification of Protein Binding Targets of a Peptide-Decorated Nanoparticle in Placental Therapy.

Abstract

By Amanda Bowman, Medical Laboratory Science

Advisor: Helen Jones

Presentation ID: PM_D14

Abstract: Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) is a physical developmental condition that results in the size of an infant at birth to be significantly smaller than what is considered safe in terms of height and weight. This condition is caused by a multitude of maternal-placental-fetal growth inhibiting factors with the research being conducted focusing specifically on limiting the effects of placental growth inhibiting factors. The mechanism used to complete this would involve using a peptide-decorated nanoparticle to deliver a growth factor, specifically human insulin growth factor 1 (IGF 1), by means of placental therapy introduced through the maternal blood stream. To accomplish this the binding properties of the peptide-decorated nanoparticle and the proteins on the maternal facing surface of the placenta must be monitored to understand the distribution of IGF1 if administered within the placenta. Maternal villous membranes (MVM) from the placenta have been isolated and lysed at different detergent concentrations to release membrane bound proteins for analysis. We are currently in the process of determining the most efficient detergent concentration that can release the most amount of protein while keeping the vesicle intact. After this portion of the experiment is finished the next step would be to identify the proteins that bind to the peptide-decorated nanoparticle through an incubation and extraction process that would identify the specific protein sequence that the peptide-decorated nanoparticle would bind to and deliver IGF 1.