The Interplay of Size and Surface Functionality on the Cellular Uptake of Sub-10 nm Gold Nanoparticles

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Ying Jiang ; Shuaidong Huo ; Tsukasa Mizuhara ; Riddha Das ; Yi-Wei Lee ; Singyuk Hou ; Daniel F. Moyano ; Bradley Duncan ; Xing-Jie Liang ; Vincent M. Rotello
• 刊名：ACS Nano
• 出版年：2015
• 出版时间：October 27, 2015
• 年：2015
• 卷：9
• 期：10
• 页码：9986-9993
• 全文大小：583K
• ISSN：1936-086X

文摘

Correlation of the surface physicochemical properties of nanoparticles with their interactions with biosystems provides key foundational data for nanomedicine. We report here the systematic synthesis of 2, 4, and 6 nm core gold nanoparticles (AuNP) featuring neutral (zwitterionic), anionic, and cationic headgroups. The cellular internalization of these AuNPs was quantified, providing a parametric evaluation of charge and size effects. Contrasting behavior was observed with these systems: with zwitterionic and anionic particles, uptake decreased with increasing AuNP size, whereas with cationic particles, uptake increased with increasing particle size. Through mechanistic studies of the uptake process, we can attribute these opposing trends to a surface-dictated shift in uptake pathways. Zwitterionic NPs are primarily internalized through passive diffusion, while the internalization of cationic and anionic NPs is dominated by multiple endocytic pathways. Our study demonstrates that size and surface charge interact in an interrelated fashion to modulate nanoparticle uptake into cells, providing an engineering tool for designing nanomaterials for specific biological applications.