title: Cooperative transmembrane penetration of nanoparticles.
abstract: Physical penetration of lipid bilayer membranes presents an alternative pathway for cellular delivery of nanoparticles (NPs) besides endocytosis. NPs delivered through this pathway could reach the cytoplasm, thereby opening the possibility of organelle-specific targeting. Herein we perform dissipative particle dynamics simulations to elucidate the transmembrane penetration mechanisms of multiple NPs. Our simulations demonstrate that NPs' translocation proceeds in a cooperative manner, where the interplay of the quantity and surface chemistry of the NPs regulates the translocation efficiency. For NPs with hydrophilic surfaces, the increase of particle quantity facilitates penetration, while for NPs with partly or totally hydrophobic surfaces, the opposite highly possibly holds. Moreover, a set of interesting cooperative ways, such as aggregation, aggregation-dispersion, and aggregation-dispersion-reaggregation of the NPs, are observed during the penetration process. We find that the penetration behaviors of multiple NPs are mostly dominated by the changes of the NP-membrane force components in the membrane plane direction, in addition to that in the penetration direction, suggesting a different interaction mechanism between the multiple NPs and the membrane compared with the one-NP case. These results provide a fundamental understanding in the underlying mechanisms of cooperative penetration of NPs, and shed light on the NP-based drug and gene delivery.
authors.affiliation: Center for Soft Condensed Matter Physics and Interdisciplinary Research, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, China.
authors.forename: Haizhen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Center for Soft Condensed Matter Physics and Interdisciplinary Research, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, China.
authors.forename: Qiuju
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.affiliation: Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, United States.
authors.forename: Changjin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, United States.
authors.forename: Sulin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Center for Soft Condensed Matter Physics and Interdisciplinary Research, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, China.
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Center for Soft Condensed Matter Physics and Interdisciplinary Research, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, China.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: 1] Center for Soft Condensed Matter Physics and Interdisciplinary Research, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, China [2] Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures and Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China.
authors.forename: Yu-qiang
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Ma
mesh_terms: D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D008051:Lipid Bilayers