Elucidating the In Vitro Adverse Effect of Functionalized Single‐Walled Carbon Nanotubes Against Breast Cancer Cells at the Proteomics Level

ABSTRACT The tremendous therapeutic potential of carbon‐based nanomaterials (CNMs) has been limited by inconsistent data regarding the nanotoxicity assessment. Although a bulk of studies have been performed to assess the in vitro cytotoxicity mechanism of CNMs, the exact factors responsible for the cytotoxicity of CNMs have not been fully understood. With the rapid advancement of mass spectrometry technologies, proteomics has emerged as a powerful strategy for systematically investigating the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying toxicity induced by nanomaterials. This study examined the in vitro cytotoxicity of single‐walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in human MCF‐7 breast cancer cells by conducting a comparative proteome‐level analysis using mass spectrometry. Initially, the characterized SWCNTs were incubated with MCF‐7 cells for 3, 6, and 24 h. Proteins were subsequently extracted from each treatment group and subjected to nano‐liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (nLC–MS/MS) analysis. The relative abundance of the identified proteins was determined by comparison with the control group, and differential expression patterns, including upregulated and downregulated proteins, were assessed. A total of 3482 unique protein groups were identified across all exposure periods. Among these, 3466 protein groups were detected following 3 h of exposure, 3469 following 6 h of exposure, and 3480 following 24 h of exposure. Compared with the control group, the identified differentially expressed proteins exhibited fold changes ranging from 2‐fold to 20‐fold across the incubation periods. In total, 70 proteins were found to be significantly regulated following SWCNT exposure. Of the differentially expressed proteins, 45 were significantly upregulated, whereas 25 were significantly downregulated. Visualization of these regulations over time was shown in a heatmap of log2‐transformed fold‐change values to explore time‐specific proteomic alterations. Functional enrichment analysis of these proteins also showed that the regulated proteins were significantly associated with Reactome pathways, including ER‐to‐Golgi anterograde transport, Golgi‐to‐ER retrograde transport, COPI‐mediated vesicle trafficking, regulation of insulin‐like growth factor transport and uptake by insulin‐like growth factor‐binding proteins, protein metabolism, and posttranslational protein modification. Furthermore, a systematic comparison of previous studies within the present findings was provided to situate our study within the broader context of understanding CNT‐induced cellular toxicity. Collectively, these findings provided an important proteomic evidence of the adverse effects of SWCNTs on MCF‐7 cells. Furthermore, this study showed a comprehensive proteomic landscape of cellular responses to SWCNT exposure, contributing to a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying SWCNT‐induced cytotoxicity and bridging the gap between protein regulation and the resulting cellular responses. In this study, we characterized the proteomic landscape of MCF‐7 cells following SWCNT exposure, revealing molecular mechanisms associated with cellular responses and cytotoxicity. The identified differentially expressed proteins established a link between altered protein regulation and SWCNT‐induced cellular effects. Moreover, these proteins need to be further validated in different cell models and would potentially represent promising candidates for the identification of novel molecular targets involved in SWCNT‐induced cytotoxicity.