Nanoparticle Shape: The Influence of Nanoparticle Shape on Protein Corona Formation (Small 25/2020)

The Influence of Nanoparticle Shape on Protein Corona Formation

Nanoparticles have become an important utility in many areas of medical treatment such as targeted drug and treatment delivery as well as imaging and diagnostics. These advances require a complete understanding of nanoparticles' fate once placed in the body. Upon exposure to blood, proteins adsorb onto the nanoparticles surface and form a protein corona, which determines the particles' biological fate. This study reports on the protein corona formation from blood serum and plasma on spherical and rod‐shaped nanoparticles. These two types of mesoporous silica nanoparticles have identical chemistry, porosity, surface potential, and size in the y ‐dimension, one being a sphere and the other a …

How Low Can You Go? Low Densities of Poly(ethylene glycol) Surfactants Attract Stealth Proteins.

It is now well-established that the surface chemistry and “stealth” surface functionalities such as poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) chains of nanocarriers play an important role to decrease unspecific protein adsorption of opsonizing proteins, to increase the enrichment of specific stealth proteins, and to prolong the circulation times of the nanocarriers. At the same time, PEG chains are used to provide colloidal stability for the nanoparticles. However, it is not clear how the chain length and density influence the unspecific and specific protein adsorption keeping at the same time the stability of the nanoparticles in a biological environment. Therefore, this study aims at characterizing the…