Polyethylene glycol backfilling mitigates the negative impact of the protein corona on nanoparticle cell targeting.
In protein-rich environments such as the blood, the formation of a protein corona on receptor-targeting nanoparticles prevents target recognition. As a result, the ability of targeted nanoparticles to selectively bind to diseased cells is drastically inhibited. Backfilling the surface of a targeted nanoparticle with polyethylene glycol (PEG) molecules is demonstrated to reduce the formation of the protein corona and re-establishes specific binding. The length of the backfilled PEG molecules must be less than the length of the ligand linker; otherwise, PEG interferes with the binding of the targeting ligand to its corresponding cellular receptor.
Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering; Terrence Donnelly Center for Cellular and Biomolecular Research; Department of Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering; and Department of Chemical Engineering University of Toronto, Toronto, M5S 3G9 (Canada).
Qin
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Dai
Carl
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Walkey
Warren C W
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Chan
D006801:Humans; D061986:MCF-7 Cells; D053758:Nanoparticles; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols / Q000737:chemistry*; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet
D011506:Proteins; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols
PEGylation; cell targeting; nanoparticles; polymers; surface chemistry