(260aw) How Protein Corona Affects Cellular Uptake of Nanoparticles

A successful application of nanoparticles(NPs) in targeted drug delivery requires a fine tuning of the interaction between NPs and cells in a physiological environment, where the NPs interact with extracellular proteins, yielding a protein corona due to protein adsorption on the NPs surface. The protein corona thus determines the interactions between NPs and cells and, consequently, the uptake of NPs by the cells. In the present study, we synthesized a carboxylate-modified NPs and amine-modified NPs with similar diameter by emulsion polymerization. The changes in physiochemical properties of NPs before and after protein adsorption were identified and the different protein adsorption of two types of NPs were determined using Isothermal Titration Calorimetry and TEM. Using HepG2 as the model cell lines, we examined the effect of protein corona on the uptake of NPs. The two types of NPs appeared a different protein adsorption thermodynamics and protein corona morphology. However, the two types of NPs saturated with protein adsorption were indistinguishable in terms of size and surface properties. The uptake of NPs was affected by both the protein corona and the nature of NPs. While the protein corona changed the dynamic profile of uptake, the endocytosis pathway and the intracellular transport of NPs, the surface charge of NPs, which impacted on the configuration of the protein corona, affected the uptake percentage significantly.

The present study was sponsored by National Natural Science Foundation of China [NSFC No. 21576148].