Nanoparticles can be administered for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes, thus they are promising tools in medicine. Nevertheless, the parameters influencing their behavior in vivo remain elusive.
Hee-Sun Han, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, and colleagues demonstrated that, when designing nanoparticles for in vivo applications, great attention has to be given to the three-dimensional configuration of their surface charges. The scientists revealed that the in vivo binding specificity of nanoparticles, their permanence in the blood circulation, as well as their transvascular delivery, are influenced by the surface charge distribution. As a consequence, the exposure of positively charged groups on nanoparticles’ outermost layers needs to be avoided as it causes nonspecific interactions with the vasculature. Moreover, nanoparticles need to be conjugated with neutral functional groups when their long blood circulation and fast transvascular transport are required.
- Spatial charge configuration regulates nanoparticle transport and binding behavior in vivo,
H. Han, J. D. Martin, J. Lee, D. K. Harris, D. Fukumura, R. K. Jain, M. Bawendi,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2013, 52 (5), 1414–1419.
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201208331
