The Evolution of the Protein Corona around Nanoparticles: A Test Study

TLDR

The protein corona that forms around nanoparticles in biological fluids is increasingly recognized as a key determinant of their fate, yet it can evolve and re‑equilibrate when particles move between fluids, influencing long‑term behavior. This study demonstrates how the corona changes when nanoparticles are transferred from plasma to a cytosolic fluid, offering a model that could map transport pathways and predict nanoparticle fate. The authors transferred nanoparticles from plasma into cytosolic fluid and monitored the resulting corona evolution, using this simple system to represent cellular uptake. They found that the corona undergoes substantial evolution in the cytosolic fluid and that the final corona retains a fingerprint of its prior history.

Abstract

The importance of the protein corona formed around nanoparticles upon entering a biological fluid has recently been highlighted. This corona is, when sufficiently long-lived, thought to govern the particles' biological fate. However, even this long-lived "hard" corona evolves and re-equilibrates as particles pass from one biological fluid to another, and may be an important feature for long-term fate. Here we show the evolution of the protein corona as a result of transfer of nanoparticles from one biological fluid (plasma) into another (cytosolic fluid), a simple illustrative model for the uptake of nanoparticles into cells. While no direct comparison can be made to what would happen in, for example, the uptake pathway, the results confirm that significant evolution of the corona occurs in the second biological solution, but that the final corona contains a "fingerprint" of its history. This could be evolved to map the transport pathways utilized by nanoparticles, and eventually to predict nanoparticle fate and behavior.