Temperature, Concentration, and Surface Modification Influence the Protein Corona

Abstract

The composition of the protein corona varies according to multiple parameters and influences the cellular fate of the nanocarriers. Here, we investigated the influence of four key parameters (surfactant, surface charge, temperature, and plasma concentration) on the formation and composition of the protein corona and ultimately on the cellular uptake of pre-coated nanoparticles. At a fixed temperature and concentration, the surface charge, and surfactant influence the composition, with the greatest variation observed between surfactants for a fixed surface charge. We observed that the composition of the corona formed at low temperatures (4°C) differs from that formed at physiological temperatures (37 °C). At low plasma concentration (up to 25%), the corona tends to be more complex than at high plasma concentration (60% and above). Finally, we concluded that regardless of the formulation of the nanoparticles, the degree of uptake by cancer and endothelial cells of the nanoparticles decreased when pre-coated at increasing temperature or plasma concentration.

Keywords: nanoparticle, protein corona, temperature dependency, concentration dependency