Dynamic intracellular exchange of nanomaterials’ protein corona perturbs proteostasis and remodels cell metabolism

Significance This study analyzed the dynamic protein corona on the surface of nanoparticles as they traversed from blood to cell lysosomes and escaped from lysosomes to cytoplasm in the target cells. We found with proteomic analysis an abundance of chaperone and glycolysis coronal proteins (i.e., heat shock cognate protein 70, heat shock protein 90, and pyruvate kinase M2 [PKM2]) after escape of the nanoparticles from lysosomes to the cytosol. Alterations of the coronal proteins (e.g., PKM2 and chaperone binding) induced proteostasis collapse, which subsequently led to elevated chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) activity in cells. As PKM2 is a key molecule in cell metabolism, we also revealed that PKM2 depletion was causative to CMA-induced cell metabolism disruption from glycolysis to lipid metabolism.