Probing emergence of biomolecular coronas around drug‐loaded liposomal nanoparticles in the solution by using nanoparticle tracking analysis

• Published in: Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society Vol. 44; no. 7; pp. 551 - 557
• Main Authors: Jeong, Ji Yeon, Joung, Heeju, Jang, Gwi Ju, Han, Sang Yun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA 01.07.2023; 대한화학회
• Subjects: doxorubicin‐loaded liposomes; drug delivery system; hydrodynamic radius; nanoparticle tracking analysis; soft biomolecular coronas; 화학
• ISSN: 1229-5949; 0253-2964; 1229-5949
• DOI: 10.1002/bkcs.12692

Various state‐of‐art analytical methods have played a critical role in understanding the nature of protein coronas. In most cases, the analyses require the biomolecule‐coated engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) to be isolated from the biological environment by energetic processes. This only allows investigation of so‐called “hard” coronas, which are biomolecules tightly bound to the surfaces of ENMs. We examined fluorescence‐nanoparticle tracking analysis (F‐NTA) as a suitable method to study the formation of natural biomolecular coronas in solution, that is, without separation. The formation of coronas of high‐density lipoprotein, immunoglobulin G, and human serum albumin, and also that of the blood serum around fluorescently labeled PEGylated doxorubicin‐loaded liposomes were investigated in terms of the changes in hydrodynamic size as a function of concentration, incubation time, and PEGylation density of liposomes. From the results, this study successfully demonstrates that NTA in the fluorescence mode is indeed suitable to probing intact biomolecular coronas in the native environment. Nanoparticle tracking analysis in the fluorescence (F‐NTA) is demonstrated to selectively monitor the formation of natural biomolecular coronas around drug‐loaded liposomes, which does not neccesitate the isolation of liposomes from the complex native environment. In contrast to previous studies that were limited to hard coronas, the results also uncovered intriguing time‐evolving changes occurring in soft coronas.