Transcriptoma integrativo de células humanas tratadas com diferentes tipos de nanopartículas

Abstract

Nanoparticles (NPs) are defined as a particle of matter that is between 1 and 100 nanometers (nm) in at least one side. NPs can be produced from different organic and inorganic materials and in different forms (example: nanotubes, nanospheres and nanorods). This technology has a promising potential for several biological applications due to its possibility of functionalization which allows the selective delivery of nanoparticles to organs, tissues, and cells. The applicability in human health is related to the use of NPs as stimulators of the immune system when they are conjugated with antigens, in the diagnosis and treatment of tumors, and also as delivery drugs systems to target organs and tissues. Despite the use of NPs in new diagnostic, treatment, and prevention technologies for human diseases, few studies are conducted to verify the effect of NPs on the cellular transcriptome. Integrative transcriptome analysis (ITA) is currently recognized as a promising technique for understanding biological events through the analysis of several transcriptomes deposited in public databases. This approach allows not only evaluating which genes are expressed differently in different conditions but also can infer the biological pathways activated after a specific stimulus. In this research, 81 transcriptomes derived from human cells treated with nanoparticles were identified in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Of these, 45 were selected because they are transcriptomes of cells treated with nanoparticles composed only of one material (without association or conjugation with any other substance or material) and untreated cells. The other studies were excluded due to lack of data, absence of replicates, absence of control group, and because they are derived from cells treated with nanoparticles composed of more than one material. Therefore, due to the variability of these studies, only transcriptomes of cells treated with NPs for 24 hours were selected. Thus, 30 datasets were used and these comprising transcriptomes derived from 5 materials and 6 different cells. ITA used the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in each of the transcriptomes and demonstrated a specificity in the cellular response to different types of NPs. Few DEGs were common on two or more analyzed transcriptomes. The analysis of biological pathways showed a high diversity of biological pathways that were activated or suppressed by the different treatments and also a very low number of shared pathways among the transcriptomes. Therefore, the ITA of human cell transcriptomes treated with different nanoparticles demonstrates a specific transcriptional response to material and also to the cell type.