Biocompatibility and Biological Effects of Surface-Modified Conjugated Polymer Nanoparticles

Wanni Guo; Mingjian Chen; Yuxin Yang; Guili Ge; Le Tang; Shuyi He; Zhaoyang Zeng; Xiaoling Li; Guiyuan Li; Wei Xiong; Steven Wu

doi:10.3390/molecules28052034

Biocompatibility and Biological Effects of Surface-Modified Conjugated Polymer Nanoparticles

Molecules. 2023 Feb 21;28(5):2034. doi: 10.3390/molecules28052034.

Authors

Wanni Guo^{1

2

3}, Mingjian Chen^{1

2

3}, Yuxin Yang^{1

2

3}, Guili Ge^{1

2

3}, Le Tang^{1

2

3}, Shuyi He⁴, Zhaoyang Zeng^{1

2

3}, Xiaoling Li^{1

2

3}, Guiyuan Li^{1

2

3}, Wei Xiong^{1

2

3}, Steven Wu⁴

Affiliations

¹ NHC Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Human Key Laboratory of Cancer Metabolism, Hunan Cancer Hospital and the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha 410000, China.
² Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of the Chinese Ministry of Education, Cancer Research Institute and School of Basic Medicine Sciences, Central South University, Changsha 410000, China.
³ Hunan Key Laboratory of Nonresolving Inflammation and Cancer, Disease Genome Research Center, the Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410000, China.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD 57069, USA.

Abstract

Semiconductiong polymer nanoparticles (Pdots) have a wide range of applications in biomedical fields including biomolecular probes, tumor imaging, and therapy. However, there are few systematic studies on the biological effects and biocompatibility of Pdots in vitro and in vivo. The physicochemical properties of Pdots, such as surface modification, are very important in biomedical applications. Focusing on the central issue of the biological effects of Pdots, we systematically investigated the biological effects and biocompatibility of Pdots with different surface modifications and revealed the interactions between Pdots and organisms at the cellular and animal levels. The surfaces of Pdots were modified with different functional groups, including thiol, carboxyl, and amino groups, named Pdots@SH, Pdots@COOH, and Pdots@NH₂, respectively. Extracellular studies showed that the modification of sulfhydryl, carboxyl, and amino groups had no significant effect on the physicochemical properties of Pdots, except that the amino modification affected the stability of Pdots to a certain extent. At the cellular level, Pdots@NH₂ reduced cellular uptake capacity and increased cytotoxicity due to their instability in solution. At the in vivo level, the body circulation and metabolic clearance of Pdots@SH and Pdots@COOH were superior to those of Pdots@NH₂. The four kinds of Pdots had no obvious effect on the blood indexes of mice and histopathological lesions in the main tissues and organs. This study provides important data for the biological effects and safety assessment of Pdots with different surface modifications, which pave the way for their potential biomedical applications.

Keywords: biocompatibility; semiconducting polymer nanoparticles; surface modification.

MeSH terms

Animals
Nanoparticles*
Optical Imaging / methods
Polymers / chemistry
Semiconductors*

Substances

Polymers

Grants and funding

This research was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China grant number (21806186, 82073135, 82072374, 82002239, 81972776, 818030025, 81772928 and 81772901), the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (2019RS1005, 2020JJ4766 and 2020JJ4125), Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities of the Central South University (1053320190609), CSU Innovation-Driven funding (20180026040002, 2021zzts0318).