Oral delivery of nanoparticles – let’s not forget about the protein corona
The learnt lesson: protein corona governs the fate of nanoparticles in the systemic circulation
The idea of using nanotechnology as drug delivery tool has been around for decades, with the exciting – yet perhaps simplistic – perspective that we could control the targeting and pharmacokinetics of nanoparticles (NPs) by manipulating their size and surface properties. Nevertheless, only a dozen years ago the scientific community had to take a serious step backward (or forward) in this regard, based on the fact that NPs, as any other physical entities having an active surface area, can interact with the surrounding environment.
This means that when NPs enter into the bloodstream a complex interaction with the native proteins begins immediately. As protein corona (PC) builds up rapidly on the surface of NPs, their original size and surface properties change. Thus, all efforts to chemically engineer the surface characteristics of NPs and tune in vivo targeting and pharmacokinetics become transient and can be voided by the formation of PC. In fact, it is often the external PC that determines the true ‘biological identity’ and the in vivo fate of the NPs, including aggregation, circulation time, clearance rate and targeting. Download the article as a PDF here
Article Information: Alberto Berardi, Francesca Baldelli Bombelli; Published 29th April 2019 Taylor & Francis Online