The injective lyotropic liquid crystalline nanogels (LLCNs) were widely used in drug delivery systems. But when administered in vivo, LLCNs exposed to the biological environment interact with proteins. Recently, it has been shown that nanoparticles coated with zwitterions can inhibit their interaction with proteins. Thus, in this study, the interaction between proteins and LLCNs coated with the zwitterionic material sulfobetaine (GLLCNs@HDSB) was investigated using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a model protein. Interestingly, it was found that GLLCNs@HDSB at higher concentrations (≥0.8 mg/mL) could block its interaction with BSA, but not at lower concentrations (<0.8 mg/mL), according to the results of ultraviolet, fluorescence, and circular dichroism spectra. In the ultraviolet spectra, the absorbance of GLLCNs@HDSB (0.8 mg/mL) was 1.9 times higher than that without the sulfobetaine coating (GLLCNs) after incubation with protein; the fluorescence quenching intensity of GLLCNs@HDSB was conversely larger than that of the GLLCNs; in circular dichroism spectra, the ellipticity value of GLLCNs@HDSB was significantly smaller than that of the GLLCNs, and the change in GLLCNs@HDSB was 10 times higher than that of the GLLCNs. Generally, nanoparticles coated with sulfobetaine can inhibit their interaction with proteins, but in this study, LLCNs showed a concentration-dependent inhibitory effect. It could be inferred that in contrast to the surface of nanoparticles covered with sulfobetaine in other cases, the sulfobetaine in this study interacted with the LLCNs and was partially inserted into the hydrophobic region of the LLCNs. In conclusion, this study suggests that coating-modified nanoparticles do not necessarily avoid interacting with proteins, and we should also study coating-modified nanoparticles interacting with proteins both in vitro and in vivo. In the future, finding a coating material to completely inhibit the interaction between LLCNs and proteins will generate a great impetus to promote the clinical transformation of LLCNs.
Keywords: adsorption mode; interaction; lyotropic liquid crystalline nanogels; sulfobetaine.