Permission to Enter Cell by Shape: Nanodisk vs Nanosphere

Abstract

Changing polystyrene nanoparticles from threedimensional spherical shape to two-dimensional disk shape promotes their cell surface binding with significant reduction of cell uptake. As a result of lower cell uptake, nanodisks show very little perturbations on cell functions such as cellular ROS generation, apoptosis and cell cycle progression compared to nanospheres. Therefore, disk-shaped nanoparticles may be a promising template for developing cell membrane-specific and safer imaging agents for a range of biomedical applications such as molecular imaging, tissue engineering, cell tracking, and stem cell separation.

Theory, simulations and the design of functionalized nanoparticles for biomedical applications: A Soft Matter Perspective

“…This latter process leads to trapping in a metastable state, providing a likely explanation for experimental data that reported increased binding, but reduced endocytosis, for ellipsoidal particles compared to spherical ones. 49,50 The trends observed by Dasgupta et al 34 expand and confirm results from previous molecular dynamics (MD) and dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations observed while studying the kinetics of nanoparticles adsorption. 10,29,33 In both MD and DPD simulations, the equation of motion for a system of interacting particles are solved, 51 which allows accounting for the discrete nature of the system.…”

“…The results of this simulations point out that shape has a strong effect on the nanoparticle wrapping process. 49,50 Non-spherical nanoparticles were shown to have various meta-stable wrapping states, separated by relatively high-energy barriers that increase with increasing sharpness of their edges, an aspect that can critically slow down their uptake. Moreover, it was shown that elongated particles display a complex internalisation pathway where reorientation can occur.…”

Simulating the interaction of lipid membranes with polymer and ligand-coated nanoparticles

“…The permeation of nanoplastics through cell membranes and their effect on the properties of cell membranes have been recently studied by experiments [114][115][116] and simulations [117,118]. Notman and co-workers studied the interaction of cross-linked PS nanoparticles (between 1.3 and 3.7 nm in radius) with model membranes [117] (Figure 3).…”

Cell Rescue by Nanosequestration: Reduced Cytotoxicity of An Environmental Remediation Residue, Mg(OH)2 Nanoflake/Cr(VI) Adduct

“…Twodimensional polymeric nanodisks mostly bound to cell surfaces with little internalization. 18 Nano-Mg(OH) 2 nanoflakes were rarely detected inside E. coli and primarily bound to the bacterial surface. 29 Because of the repellent interaction between electronegative cell membranes, negatively charged nanoparticles are internalized less than positively charged nano- particles.…”