Abstract
LC-MS/MS-based proteomics coupled with an online bioinformatics platform was under evaluation for applicability to toxicological pathways evaluation at low cytotoxic concentration (LC10) of silver nanoparticles (AgNP) and ionic silver in human carcinoma cells after 48 h of exposure. Significantly, differentially-expressed proteins (One-way ANOVA, p < 0.05) with more than 4-fold compared to the control were subjected to functional pathway analysis by STITCH. SOTA clustering indicated a similarity of the protein expression between AgNP and the control group. We established a resemblance of proteins in the cell cycle pathway affected by both Ag substances. The differences in the toxicological pathways from AgNO3 were involved in the cellular organization and metabolic process of macromolecules, while the nucleic acid metabolic process was altered by AgNP. The present study supported the practicability of LC-MS/MS-based proteomics coupled with STITCH for the identification of toxicological pathways in both silvers. We appraised this platform technology to be promising and powerful for a toxicological screening of other new substances.
