ARC Centre of Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science and Technology, and the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, 3010, Australia.
Adv Healthc Mater. 2018 Jan;7(1). doi: 10.1002/adhm.201700575. Epub 2017 Aug 15.
Over the past few decades, nanoengineered particles have gained increasing interest for applications in the biomedical realm, including diagnosis, imaging, and therapy. When functionalized with targeting ligands, these particles have the potential to interact with specific cells and tissues, and accumulate at desired target sites, reducing side effects and improve overall efficacy in applications such as vaccination and drug delivery. However, when targeted particles enter a complex biological environment, the adsorption of biomolecules and the formation of a surface coating (e.g., a protein corona) changes the properties of the carriers and can render their behavior unpredictable. For this reason, it is of importance to consider the potential challenges imposed by the biological environment at the early stages of particle design. This review describes parameters that affect the targeting ability of particulate drug carriers, with an emphasis on the effect of the protein corona. We highlight strategies for exploiting the protein corona to improve the targeting ability of particles. Finally, we provide suggestions for complementing current in vitro assays used for the evaluation of targeting and carrier efficacy with new and emerging techniques (e.g., 3D models and flow-based technologies) to advance fundamental understanding in bio-nano science and to accelerate the development of targeted particles for biomedical applications.
在过去的几十年中，纳米工程颗粒因其在生物医学领域的应用而引起了越来越多的关注，包括诊断、成像和治疗。当这些颗粒被功能化靶向配体后，它们有可能与特定的细胞和组织相互作用，并在所需的靶位积累，从而减少副作用，并提高疫苗接种和药物输送等应用的整体疗效。然而，当靶向颗粒进入复杂的生物环境时，生物分子的吸附和表面涂层的形成（例如，蛋白质冠）改变了载体的性质，并可能使它们的行为变得不可预测。因此，在颗粒设计的早期阶段考虑生物环境可能带来的潜在挑战是很重要的。本综述描述了影响颗粒药物载体靶向能力的参数，重点介绍了蛋白质冠的影响。我们强调了利用蛋白质冠来提高颗粒靶向能力的策略。最后，我们建议用新出现的技术（例如，3D 模型和流动技术）来补充当前用于评估靶向和载体功效的体外检测方法，以促进生物纳米科学的基础理解，并加速针对生物医学应用的靶向颗粒的开发。
