College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Environmental Remediation and Pollution Control, Nankai University, 38 Tongyan Rd., Tianjin, 300350, China.
State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China.
Nat Commun. 2020 Mar 9;11(1):1262. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-14972-z.
Binding of biomolecules to crystal surfaces is critical for effective biological applications of crystalline nanomaterials. Here, we present the modulation of exposed crystal facets as a feasible approach to enhance specific nanocrystal-biomolecule associations for improving cellular targeting and nanomaterial uptake. We demonstrate that facet-engineering significantly enhances transferrin binding to cadmium chalcogenide nanocrystals and their subsequent delivery into cancer cells, mediated by transferrin receptors, in a complex biological matrix. Competitive adsorption experiments coupled with theoretical calculations reveal that the (100) facet of cadmoselite and (002) facet of greenockite preferentially bind with transferrin via inner-sphere thiol complexation. Molecular dynamics simulation infers that facet-dependent transferrin binding is also induced by the differential affinity of crystal facets to water molecules in the first solvation shell, which affects access to exposed facets. Overall, this research underlines the promise of facet engineering to improve the efficacy of crystalline nanomaterials in biological applications.
生物分子与晶体表面的结合对于晶体纳米材料在生物医学中的有效应用至关重要。在这里，我们提出了一种可行的方法，即通过调节暴露的晶体面来增强特定的纳米晶-生物分子的结合，以提高细胞靶向和纳米材料摄取的效率。我们证明了通过转铁蛋白受体介导，在复杂的生物基质中，晶面工程可以显著增强纳米晶的转铁蛋白结合及其随后进入癌细胞的效率。通过竞争吸附实验和理论计算，我们发现碲镉矿的（100）面和菱锌矿的（002）面优先通过内球巯基络合与转铁蛋白结合。分子动力学模拟推断，晶体表面的不同水合能力也会导致晶面依赖的转铁蛋白结合，这会影响到暴露的晶面的可及性。总的来说，这项研究强调了晶面工程在提高晶体纳米材料在生物医学应用中的功效方面的巨大潜力。
