Influence of surface chemistry and morphology of nanoparticles on protein corona formation

Abstract

Nanomaterials offer promising solutions as drug delivery systems and imaging agents in response to the demand for better therapeutics and diagnostics. However, the limited understanding of the interaction between nanoparticles and biological entities is currently hampering the development of new systems and their applications in clinical settings. Proteins and lipids in biological fluids are known to complex with nanoparticles to form a "biomolecular corona". This has been shown to affect particles' morphology and behavior in biological systems and their interactions with cells. Hence, understanding how nanomaterials' physicochemical properties affect the formation and composition of this biocorona is a crucial step. This work evaluates existing literature on how morphology (size and shape), and surface chemistry (charge and hydrophobicity) of nanoparticles influence the formation of protein corona. The latest evidence suggest that although surface charge promotes the interaction with proteins and lipids, surface chemistry plays a leading role in determining the affinity of the nanoparticle for biomolecules and, ultimately, the composition of the corona. More recently the study of additional nanoparticles' properties like shape and surface chirality have demonstrated a significant effect on protein corona architecture, providing new tools to tailor biomolecular corona formation.

Artificial engineering of the protein corona at bio-nano interfaces for improved cancer-targeted nanotherapy

“…3A) [32], charge (Fig. 3B) [92], shape (Fig. 3C) [33,42,93], surface roughness [94,95], and alternation in ligand structures and corresponding steric hindrance [96] can extensively influence several PC characteristics, including the amounts of adsorbed proteins in hard and soft PC, the extent of structural changes of protein, and overall formation of PC [33,42,[92][93][94][95][96].…”

“…3B) [92], shape (Fig. 3C) [33,42,93], surface roughness [94,95], and alternation in ligand structures and corresponding steric hindrance [96] can extensively influence several PC characteristics, including the amounts of adsorbed proteins in hard and soft PC, the extent of structural changes of protein, and overall formation of PC [33,42,[92][93][94][95][96]. Indeed, it was found that neutral/zwitterionic or negatively-charged NPs with a spherical shape, small sizes, and rough surfaces can be used to inhibit the formation of PC.…”

Surface charge influences protein corona, cell uptake and biological effects of carbon dots

“…As well, particles with low surface charge, as determined by the ζ-potential value, tend to adsorb less proteins than strongly charged particles. 28 However, NP surface chemistry also influences protein corona formation. Indeed, it has been reported that type ( primary, secondary or tertiary), location, and density of amino groups on the surface of gold NPs are predominant factors in the protein corona formation, which has a subsequent impact on NP cellular uptake.…”

“…[19][20][21][22][23] Consequently, understanding formation of the protein corona on NPs and characterizing its composition are major challenges for suc-cessful development of nanomedicine. [24][25][26] This task is especially challenging as many factors influence the protein corona formation, in particular the physicochemical properties of NPs, 27,28 such as chemical composition, 29 size, 30,31 morphology, 32 hydrophobicity, 33 chirality, 34 and surface charge. The latter has been extensively studied and there is broad consensus in the literature on the importance of electrostatic forces in protein corona formation, with positively charged NPs consistently attracting higher quantities of proteins than negatively charged ones, as reported for a range of nanomaterials such as polymeric, 35 inorganic, 36 gold, 37 or lipidbased 38 NPs.…”

Common Fatal Neurodegenerative Diseases Revisited: Beyond Age, Comorbidities, and Devastating Terminal Neuropathology There Is Hope With Prevention

“…The key issue: redox-active, strongly magnetic nanoparticles, metal and non-metal, their size and shape, biomolecular corona, surface charge, dynamic magnetic susceptibility, anterograde and retrograde axonal transport capabilities, etc., contribute to ROS generation and extensive NVU, mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and endolysosomal network damage, and are catalysts for protein misfolding, aggregation and fibrillation. NPs neurotoxicity essentially can reproduce the path mechanisms we see in common neurodegenerative diseases, including the aggregation and propagation of neural proteins ( 30 – 38 ).…”