The Surface Charge of Polymer-Coated Upconversion Nanoparticles Determines Protein Corona Properties and Cell Recognition in Serum Solutions

Liuen Liang; Arun V Everest-Dass; Alexey B Kostyuk; Zahra Khabir; Run Zhang; Daria B Trushina; Andrei V Zvyagin

doi:10.3390/cells11223644

The Surface Charge of Polymer-Coated Upconversion Nanoparticles Determines Protein Corona Properties and Cell Recognition in Serum Solutions

Cells. 2022 Nov 17;11(22):3644. doi: 10.3390/cells11223644.

Authors

Liuen Liang¹, Arun V Everest-Dass¹, Alexey B Kostyuk², Zahra Khabir^{1

3}, Run Zhang⁴, Daria B Trushina^{5

6}, Andrei V Zvyagin^{1

2

5

7}

Affiliations

¹ MQ Photonics Centre, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.
² Laboratory of Optical Theranostics, Nizhny Novgorod State University, 603950 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.
³ Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Facilitated Advancement of Australia's Bioactives (FAAB), Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.
⁴ Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia.
⁵ Institute of Molecular Theranostics, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, 119991 Moscow, Russia.
⁶ Federal Scientific Research Centre "Crystallography and Photonics" of Russian Academy of Sciences, 119333 Moscow, Russia.
⁷ Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 117997 Moscow, Russia.

Abstract

Applications of nanoparticles (NPs) in the life sciences require control over their properties in protein-rich biological fluids, as an NP quickly acquires a layer of proteins on the surface, forming the so-called "protein corona" (PC). Understanding the composition and kinetics of the PC at the molecular level is of considerable importance for controlling NP interaction with cells. Here, we present a systematic study of hard PC formation on the surface of upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) coated with positively-charged polyethyleneimine (PEI) and negatively-charged poly (acrylic acid) (PAA) polymers in serum-supplemented cell culture medium. The rationale behind the choice of UCNP is two-fold: UCNP represents a convenient model of NP with a size ranging from 5 nm to >200 nm, while the unique photoluminescent properties of UCNP enable direct observation of the PC formation, which may provide new insight into this complex process. The non-linear optical properties of UCNP were utilised for direct observation of PC formation by means of fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. Our findings indicated that the charge of the surface polymer coating was the key factor for the formation of PC on UCNPs, with an ensuing effect on the NP-cell interactions.

Keywords: cellular uptake; cytotoxicity; polymer coating; protein cloud; protein corona; upconversion nanoparticles.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Cell Communication
Nanoparticles*
Polyethyleneimine
Polymers
Protein Corona*

Substances

Protein Corona
Polymers
Polyethyleneimine

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (Agreement № 075-15-2021-1363, Contract № 210EΠ from 29 November 2021) in the part of the synthesis of nanomaterials and the analysis of experimental results. In the part of equipment maintenance this work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (contract 075-15-2021-709, unique identifier of the project RF-2296.61321X0037).