Transportation of AIE-visualized nanoliposomes is dominated by the protein corona

Yi-Feng Wang; Chunqiu Zhang; Keni Yang; Yufei Wang; Shaobo Shan; Yan Yan; Kenneth A Dawson; Chen Wang; Xing-Jie Liang

doi:10.1093/nsr/nwab068

Transportation of AIE-visualized nanoliposomes is dominated by the protein corona

Natl Sci Rev. 2021 Apr 24;8(6):nwab068. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwab068. eCollection 2021 Jun.

Authors

Yi-Feng Wang¹, Chunqiu Zhang¹, Keni Yang¹, Yufei Wang¹, Shaobo Shan¹, Yan Yan², Kenneth A Dawson³, Chen Wang¹, Xing-Jie Liang¹

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology of China, Beijing 100190, China.
² Centre for BioNano Interactions, School of Chemistry, University College Dublin, Dublin 4 D04 V1W8, Ireland.
³ Guangdong Provincial Education Department Key Laboratory of Nano-Immuno-regulation Tumor Microenvironment, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 510260, China.

Abstract

Liposomes, especially cationic liposomes, are the most common and well-investigated nanocarriers for biomedical applications, such as drug and gene delivery. Like other types of nanomaterials, once liposomes are incubated in a biological milieu, their surface can be immediately cloaked by biological components to form a protein corona, which confers a new 'biological identity' and modulates downstream interactions with cells. However, it remains unclear how the protein corona affects the transportation mechanism after liposomes interact with cells. Here, we employed home-made aggregation-induced-emission-visualized nanoliposomes TR4@Lipo as a model to investigate transportation with or without the protein corona by optical imaging techniques. The results show that the protein corona can change the cellular transportation mechanism of TR4@Lipo from energy-independent membrane fusion to energy-dependent endocytosis. The protein corona also modulates the intracellular distribution of loaded cargoes. This knowledge furthers our understanding of bio-nano interactions and is important for the efficient use of cationic liposomes.

Keywords: aggregation-induced emission (AIE); cationic liposomes; endocytosis; membrane fusion; protein corona.