What happens to nanoparticles when they enter the bloodstream?
The use of nanoparticles in drug delivery offers key advantages: they can enable targeted drug delivery, protect active ingredients from premature degradation, extend their duration of action in the body and reduce side effects. However, as soon as nanoparticles come into contact with blood, proteins from the blood adsorb onto their surface—forming a so-called protein corona. This corona…
Nanoparticles entering the bloodstream interact with proteins in the blood, forming a protein corona that influences their behavior. This corona impacts how nanoparticles are taken up by cells, their distribution in the body, and whether the immune system attacks them. While research has mostly focused on hard nanoparticles like gold, many clinically relevant nanoparticles, such as liposomes and polymer-based ones, are soft and flexible.
Their protein coronas differ from those of hard particles due to variations in material properties. To study these differences, researchers created an artificial venous circulation system that mimics the natural bloodstream. In tests using lung cancer cells, the researchers found that nanoparticles' uptake by cells was significantly reduced by their protein corona.
The corona affects the nanoparticles' properties, with common proteins present but also material-specific differences. Lipid-based nanoparticles interacted with both soluble and membrane-associated proteins, suggesting they may interact or fuse with extracellular vesicles during circulation, altering their biological identity. This study underscores the importance of testing nanoparticles under realistic conditions to better understand their behavior in the body, aiding in the development of safer and more effective drug delivery systems.
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