Artículos de revistas
Oligoarginine peptide conjugated to BSA improves cell penetration of gold nanorods and nanoprisms for biomedical applications
Fecha
2021Registro en:
Pharmaceutics 2021, 13, 1204
10.3390/pharmaceutics13081204
Autor
Bolaños, Karen
Sánchez Navarro, Macarena
Tapia Arellano, Andreas
Giralt, Ernest
Kogan, Marcelo Javier
Araya, Eyleen
Institución
Resumen
Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have been shown to be outstanding tools for drug delivery and biomedical applications, mainly owing to their colloidal stability, surface chemistry, and
photothermal properties. The biocompatibility and stability of nanoparticles can be improved by
capping the nanoparticles with endogenous proteins, such as albumin. Notably, protein coating of
nanoparticles can interfere with and decrease their cell penetration. Therefore, in the present study,
we functionalized albumin with the r8 peptide (All-D, octaarginine) and used it for coating NIRplasmonic anisotropic gold nanoparticles. Gold nanoprisms (AuNPrs) and gold nanorods (AuNRs)
were coated with bovine serum albumin (BSA) previously functionalized using a cell penetrating
peptide (CPP) with the r8 sequence (BSA-r8
). The effect of the coated and r8
-functionalized AuNPs
on HeLa cell viability was assessed by the MTS assay, showing a low effect on cell viability after BSA
coating. Moreover, the internalization of the nanostructures into HeLa cells was assessed by confocal
microscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). As a result, both nanoconstructs showed an
improved internalization level after being capped with BSA-r8
, in contrast to the BSA-functionalized
control, suggesting the predominant role of CPP functionalization in cell internalization. Thus,
our results validate both novel nanoconstructs as potential candidates to be coated by endogenous
proteins and functionalized with a CPP to optimize cell internalization. In a further approach, coating
AuNPs with CPP-functionalized BSA can broaden the possibilities for biomedical applications by
combining their optical properties, biocompatibility, and cell-penetration abilities.