Integrated Research into the Nanoparticle-Protein Corona: A New Focus for Safe, Sustainable and Equitable Development of Nanomedicines

Abstract:     
Much contemporary nanotoxicology, nanotherapeutic and nanoregulatory research has been characterized by a focus on investigating how delivery of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) to cells is dictated primarily by components of the ENP surface. An alternative model, some implications of which are discussed here, begins with fundamental physiochemical research into the interaction of a dynamic nanoparticle-protein corona (NPC) with biological systems. The proposed new model also requires, however, that any such NPC physiochemical research approach should involve integration and targeted collaboration from the earliest stages with nanotoxicology, nanotherapeutical and nanoregulatory expertise. The justification for this integrated approach, we argue, relates not just to efficiency and promotion of innovation but to an acknowledgement that public-funded basic physiochemical research in particular should now be accepted to incorporate strong higher-order public goods elements from its inception, not merely after product development at the technology-transfer stage. Issues, such as university research cooperation, commercialization and intellectual property protection, safety and cost- effectiveness regulatory assessment, as well as technology transfer should not be viewed as second-tier considerations, even in a 'blue sky' NPC basic research agenda.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 9

Keywords: cost-effectiveness, nanomedicine, nanoparticle-protein corona, nanotoxicology, safety regulation, technology transfer

Accepted Paper Series