Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 3.4
The schematic structure of the cell plasma membrane and the cellular uptake through the
membrane. Proteins inside the protein corona can be targeting agent which due to interaction with
membrane receptors enhance the cellular uptake and hence the targeting of NPs
to the desired location, second to find out specific surfactants which enhance the
incorporation of the desired protein inside the protein corona, and finally take into
consideration the evolution of the protein corona over time. Some of famous
surface ligands which are employed as ligand-receptor targeting of cancer cells
are transferrin, insulin, folic acid, EGFP-EGF1, GRP, EGF, apoA-I, and apoE.
Caracciolo et al. [
28
] showed that the “protein corona effect” could be useful for
targeting cancer cells. Since the “protein corona” of cationic lipid/DNA complexes
(lipoplexes) was found to be extremely rich in vitronectin, the authors attempted to
use it to target MDA-MB-435S cancer cells that overexpress
5
integrins, two major vitronectin receptors. The finding that the cellular uptake of
lipoplexes covered by this vitronectin-rich protein layer was more than twofold
larger than that of the uncovered supports the suggestion that the “protein corona”
can be extremely useful to target-specific cells.
The uptake of nanoparticles inside the cell can be followed by five different
mechanisms. These mechanisms can be classified as endocytosis and
non-endocytosis. The endocytosis-based mechanisms are phagocytosis, caveolae,
clathrin-mediated endocytosis, and fluid-phase pinocytosis [
29
]. The detailed
mechanisms of endocytosis pathways have been discussed in some recent reviews
[
30
-
32
].
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3 and
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