The Effect of shape on Cellular Uptake of Gold Nanoparticles in the forms of Stars, Rods, and Triangles

TLDR

Gold nanomaterials have attracted considerable interest as vehicles for intracellular drug delivery. The study synthesized PEG‑coated anisotropic gold nanoparticles in star, rod, and triangle shapes, then quantified their uptake by RAW264.7 macrophages and examined shape‑dependent endocytosis pathways. Cellular uptake was lowest for stars, intermediate for rods, and highest for triangles, demonstrating that nanoparticle shape strongly influences internalization efficiency and guiding nanomaterial design.

Abstract

Gold nanomaterials have attracted considerable interest as vehicles for intracellular drug delivery. In our study, we synthesized three different shapes of methylpolyethylene glycol coated-anisotropic gold nanoparticles: stars, rods, and triangles. The cellular internalization of these nanoparticles by RAW264.7 cells was analyzed, providing a parametric evaluation of the effect of shape. The efficiency of cellular uptake of the gold nanoparticles was found to rank in the following order from lowest to highest: stars, rods, and triangles. The possible mechanisms of cellular uptake for the three types of gold nanoparticles were examined, and it was found that different shapes tended to use the various endocytosis pathways in different proportions. Our study, which has demonstrated that shape can modulate the uptake of nanoparticles into RAW264.7 cells and that triangles were the shape with the most efficient cellular uptake, provides useful guidance toward the design of nanomaterials for drug delivery.