In situ apolipoprotein E-enriched corona guides dihydroartemisinin-decorating nanoparticles towards LDLr-mediated tumor-homing chemotherapy

In situ customized apolipoprotein B48-enriched protein corona enhances oral gene delivery of chitosan-based nanoparticles

The formation of protein corona (PC) is important for promoting the in vivo delivery of nanoparticles (NPs). However, PC formed in the physiological environment of oral delivery is poorly understood. Here, we engineered seven types of trimethyl chitosan-cysteine (TC) NPs, with distinct molecular weights, quaternization degrees, and thiolation degrees, to deeply investigate the influence of various PC formed in the physiological environment of oral delivery on in vivo gene delivery of polymeric NPs, further constructing the relationship between the surface characteristics of NPs and the efficacy of oral gene delivery. Our findings reveal that TC7 NPs, with high molecular weight, moderate quaternization, and high sulfhydryl content, modulate PC formation in the gastrointestinal tract, thereby reducing particle size and promoting oral delivery of gene loaded TC7 NPs. Orally delivered TC7 NPs target macrophages by in situ adsorption of apolipoprotein (Apo) B48 in intestinal tissue, leading to the improved in vivo antihepatoma efficacy via the natural tumor homing ability of macrophages. Our results suggest that efficient oral delivery of genes can be achieved through an in situ customized ApoB48-enriched PC, offering a promising modality in treating macrophage-related diseases.

Fluorine-modified polymers reduce the adsorption of immune-reactive proteins to PEGylated gold nanoparticles

Aim: To investigate the influence of fluorine in reducing the adsorption of immune-reactive proteins onto PEGylated gold nanoparticles. Methods: Reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer polymerization, the Turkevich method and ligand exchange were used to prepare polymer-coated gold nanoparticles. Subsequent in vitro physicochemical and biological characterizations and proteomic analysis were performed. Results: Fluorine-modified polymers reduced the adsorption of complement and other immune-reactive proteins while potentially improving circulatory times and modulating liver toxicity by reducing apolipoprotein E adsorption. Fluorine actively discouraged phagocytosis while encouraging the adsorption of therapeutic targets, CD209 and signaling molecule calreticulin. Conclusion: This study suggests that the addition of fluorine in the surface coating of nanoparticles could lead to improved performance in nanomedicine designed for the intravenous delivery of cargos.

Controlling the protein corona of polymeric nanocapsules: effect of polymer shell on protein adsorption

Understanding the interactions between nanocarriers and plasma proteins is essential for controlling their biological fate. Based on the reported potential of polymeric nanocapsules (NCs) for the targeted delivery of oncological drugs, the main objective of this work has been to investigate how the surface chemical composition influences their protein corona fingerprint. Thus, we developed six NC prototypes with different polymer shells and physicochemical properties and quantified the amount of protein adsorbed upon incubation in human plasma. Using sequential window acquisition of all theoretical mass spectra (SWATH-MS) and following the Minimum Information about Nanomaterial Biocorona Experiments (MINBE) guidelines, we identified different protein corona patterns. As expected, the presence of polyethylene glycol (PEG) in the polymer shell reduced the protein corona, particularly the adsorption of immunoglobulins. However, by comparing the different prototypes, we concluded that the protein adsorption pattern was not exclusively driven by PEG. In fact, a highly PEGylated prototype exhibited intense apolipoprotein IV adsorption. On the other hand, we also observed that polymeric NCs containing 1,2-dioleoyl-3-trimethylammonium propane (DOTAP) exhibited high adsorption of vitronectin, a protein that is known for enhancing the uptake of nanosystems by lung epithelium and several cancer cells. Overall, the gathered information allowed us to identify promising polymeric NCs with an expected prolonged circulation time, enhanced tumor targeting, liver accumulation, and preferential uptake by the immune system. In this sense, the analyses of the protein corona performed along this work will hopefully contribute to advancing a new generation of rationally designed nanometric drug delivery systems.

Belinostat loaded lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticulate delivery system for breast cancer: improved pharmacokinetics and biodistribution in a tumor model

Despite various treatment modalities for breast cancer, it still persists as one of the most diagnosed types of cancer in females. The recent investigations in the epigenetics of breast cancer reveal several aberrations in the expression levels of various HDAC enzymes. Henceforth, the present work entails the formulation and characterization of a lipid polymer-based hybrid nanoparticulate (LPN) system for delivery of an epigenetic modulator drug, Belinostat, for its clinical application in breast cancer. The size of Belinostat nanoparticles prepared using a modified hot homogenization method was found to be 166.6 ± 19.95 nm with an encapsulation efficiency of 94.5 ± 5.1%. In vitro characterization for cytotoxicity, cellular uptake, and protein expression in two different breast cancer cells, 4T1 and MCF 7, revealed the superiority of the formulation in comparison with the free drug in MCF 7 cells. Subsequently, the behaviour of the formulation in in vivo settings of healthy and breast cancer xenograft bearing animals was analyzed using pharmacokinetic and biodistribution studies. The results revealed that the formulation demonstrated multi-fold improvement in the pharmacokinetic parameters in tumor bearing animals when compared with the free drug while no difference in pharmacokinetic behaviour was observed in healthy animals indicating the altered biodistribution and specificity of the formulation in breast tumor. This was confirmed by the biodistribution studies exhibiting 20-fold improved uptake and retention of the nanoparticulate formulation in tumor tissues of the animal model at the end of 4 h. Thus, the developed LPN system holds potential to act as a novel drug delivery system for Belinostat with several advantages over the free drug.

Advances in nanotechnology for the treatment of GBM

Glioblastoma (GBM), a highly malignant glioma of the central nervous system, is the most dread and common brain tumor with a high rate of therapeutic resistance and recurrence. Currently, the clinical treatment methods are surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. However, owning to the highly invasive nature of GBM, it is difficult to completely resect them due to the unclear boundary between the edges of GBM and normal brain tissue. Traditional radiotherapy and the combination of alkylating agents and radiotherapy have significant side effects, therapeutic drugs are difficult to penetrate the blood brain barrier. Patients receiving treatment have a high postoperative recurrence rate and a median survival of less than 2 years, Less than 5% of patients live longer than 5 years. Therefore, it is urgent to achieve precise treatment through the blood brain barrier and reduce toxic and side effects. Nanotechnology exhibit great potential in this area. This article summarizes the current treatment methods and shortcomings of GBM, and summarizes the research progress in the diagnosis and treatment of GBM using nanotechnology.

Strategies to overcome/penetrate the BBB for systemic nanoparticle delivery to the brain/brain tumor

Despite its prevalence in the management of peripheral tumors, compared to surgery and radiation therapy, chemotherapy is still a suboptimal intervention in fighting against brain cancer and cancer brain metastases. This discrepancy is mainly derived from the complicatedly physiological characteristic of intracranial tumors, including the presence of blood-brain barrier (BBB) and limited enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect attributed to blood-brain tumor barrier (BBTB), which largely lead to insufficient therapeutics penetrating to tumor lesions to produce pharmacological effects. Therefore, dependable methodologies that can boost the efficacy of chemotherapy for brain tumors are urgently needed. Recently, nanomedicines have shown great therapeutic potential in brain tumors by employing various transcellular strategies, paracellular strategies, and their hybrids, such as adsorptive-mediated transcytosis, receptor-mediated transcytosis, BBB disruption technology, and so on. It is compulsory to comprehensively summarize these practices to shed light on future directions in developing therapeutic regimens for brain tumors. In this review, the biological and pathological characteristics of brain tumors, including BBB and BBTB, are illustrated. After that, the emerging delivery strategies for brain tumor management are summarized into different classifications and supported with detailed examples. Finally, the potential challenges and prospects for developing and clinical application of brain tumor-oriented nanomedicine are discussed.

The Yin and Yang of the protein corona on the delivery journey of nanoparticles

Nanoparticles-based drug delivery systems have attracted significant attention in biomedical fields because they can deliver loaded cargoes to the target site in a controlled manner. However, tremendous challenges must still be overcome to reach the expected targeting and therapeutic efficacy in vivo. These challenges mainly arise because the interaction between nanoparticles and biological systems is complex and dynamic and is influenced by the physicochemical properties of the nanoparticles and the heterogeneity of biological systems. Importantly, once the nanoparticles are injected into the blood, a protein corona will inevitably form on the surface. The protein corona creates a new biological identity which plays a vital role in mediating the bio-nano interaction and determining the ultimate results. Thus, it is essential to understand how the protein corona affects the delivery journey of nanoparticles in vivo and what we can do to exploit the protein corona for better delivery efficiency. In this review, we first summarize the fundamental impact of the protein corona on the delivery journey of nanoparticles. Next, we emphasize the strategies that have been developed for tailoring and exploiting the protein corona to improve the transportation behavior of nanoparticles in vivo. Finally, we highlight what we need to do as a next step towards better understanding and exploitation of the protein corona. We hope these insights into the "Yin and Yang" effect of the protein corona will have profound implications for understanding the role of the protein corona in a wide range of nanoparticles.

Harnessing Protein Corona for Biomimetic Nanomedicine Design

Nanoparticles (NPs) are usually treated as multifunctional agents combining several therapeutical applications, like imaging and targeting delivery. However, clinical translation is still largely hindered by several factors, and the rapidly formed protein corona on the surface of NPs is one of them. The formation of protein corona is complicated and irreversible in the biological environment, and protein corona will redefine the “biological identity” of NPs, which will alter the following biological events and therapeutic efficacy. Current understanding of protein corona is still limited and incomplete, and in many cases, protein corona has adverse impacts on nanomedicine, for instance, losing targeting ability, activating the immune response, and rapid clearance. Due to the considerable role of protein corona in NPs’ biological fate, harnessing protein corona to achieve some therapeutic effects through various methods like biomimetic approaches is now treated as a promising way to meet the current challenges in nanomedicine such as poor pharmacokinetic properties, off-target effect, and immunogenicity. This review will first introduce the current understanding of protein corona and summarize the investigation process and technologies. Second, the strategies of harnessing protein corona with biomimetic approaches for nanomedicine design are reviewed. Finally, we discuss the challenges and future outlooks of biomimetic approaches to tune protein corona in nanomedicine.

Engineering a Nano/Biointerface for Cell and Organ-Selective Drug Delivery

The field of nanomedicine has rapidly grown in the past decades. Although a few nanomedicines are available in the market for clinical use, it is still challenging to develop nanomedicine targeting tissues beyond the liver. It has been recognized that even though the nanoparticles are modified with targeting ligands, the formation of a protein corona on the surface of nanoparticles in the biological fluids results in limited progress in nanoparticle-based drug delivery to specific cells or tissues. In this Perspective, we will discuss the role of surface properties in determining the formation of the protein corona and summarize the recent progress in engineering the nano/bio interface for protein-corona-mediated cell- and organ-selective drug delivery. Moreover, current challenges in the field and insights into designing new strategies for targeting drug delivery with a better understanding of the protein corona will be discussed.

Transforming Passive into Active: Multimodal Pheophytin-Based Carbon Dots Customize Protein Corona to Target Metastatic Breast Cancer

Formation of protein corona on nanomaterials surface in vivo is usually considered as an unpredictable event for a predefined targeted delivery system for malignant cancers. In most situations, these protein coronas substantially change targeting efficiency or even cause adverse reactions which both hinder the clinical translation of the cargo-delivery systems. Active customization of protein corona onto nanomaterials surfaces can benefit their biomedical performances and open up new opportunities in construction of targeted delivery systems. Herein, lipid-PEG/pheophytin carbon dots (LPCDs) are prepared from natural chlorophyll and integrate seamlessly with positron emission tomography imaging, near-infrared fluorescence imaging, and photodynamic therapy capacity. In vitro measurements demonstrate that the LPCDs can actively absorb apolipoproteins into the protein corona to enhance their uptakes in breast cancer cells. In vivo studies confirm that LPCDs can give accurate delineation of metastatic breast cancer foci from surrounding normal tissues with multimodal biomedical functions. The feasibility of using LPCDs as a multimodal imaging and cancer-targeting nanoplatform may provide impetus for developing precise yet facile protein corona-targeted delivery systems for future clinical practice.

Two-Pronged Anti-Tumor Therapy by a New Polymer-Paclitaxel Conjugate Micelle with an Anti-Multidrug Resistance Effect

Introduction

Cancerous tumors are still a major disease that threatens human life, with tumor multidrug resistance (MDR) being one of the main reasons for the failure of chemotherapy. Thus, reversing tumor MDR has become a research focus of medical scientists.

Methods

Here, a reduction-sensitive polymer prodrug micelle, mPEG-DCA-SS-PTX (PDSP), was manufactured with a new polymer inhibitor of drug resistance as a carrier to overcome MDR and improve the anti-tumor effect of PTX.

Results

The PDSP micelles display good stability, double-responsive drug release, and excellent biocompatibility. The PDSP micelles reduced the cytotoxicity of PTX to normal HL-7702 cells and enhanced that to SMMC-7721 and MCF-7 cells in vitro. Improved sensitivity of A549/ADR to PDSP was also observed in vitro. Furthermore, in vivo experiments show reduced systemic toxicity and enhanced therapeutic efficacy of PTX to H22 subcutaneous tumor-bearing mice.

Conclusion

This work proves that the reduction-sensitive polymer prodrug micelles carried by the new polymer inhibitor can be used as an alternative delivery system to target tumors and reverse MDR for paclitaxel and other tumor-resistant drugs.

Novel brain-targeted nanomicelles for anti-glioma therapy mediated by the ApoE-enriched protein corona in vivo

Background

The interactions between nanoparticles (NPs) and plasma proteins form a protein corona around NPs after entering the biological environment, which provides new biological properties to NPs and mediates their interactions with cells and biological barriers. Given the inevitable interactions, we regard nanoparticle‒protein interactions as a tool for designing protein corona-mediated drug delivery systems. Herein, we demonstrate the successful application of protein corona-mediated brain-targeted nanomicelles in the treatment of glioma, loading them with paclitaxel (PTX), and decorating them with amyloid β-protein (Aβ)-CN peptide (PTX/Aβ-CN-PMs). Aβ-CN peptide, like the Aβ_1–42 peptide, specifically binds to the lipid-binding domain of apolipoprotein E (ApoE) in vivo to form the ApoE-enriched protein corona surrounding Aβ-CN-PMs (ApoE/PTX/Aβ-CN-PMs). The receptor-binding domain of the ApoE then combines with low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLr) and LDLr-related protein 1 receptor (LRP1r) expressed in the blood–brain barrier and glioma, effectively mediating brain-targeted delivery.

Methods

PTX/Aβ-CN-PMs were prepared using a film hydration method with sonication, which was simple and feasible. The specific formation of the ApoE-enriched protein corona around nanoparticles was characterized by Western blotting analysis and LC–MS/MS. The in vitro physicochemical properties and in vivo anti-glioma effects of PTX/Aβ-CN-PMs were also well studied.

Results

The average size and zeta potential of PTX/Aβ-CN-PMs and ApoE/PTX/Aβ-CN-PMs were 103.1 nm, 172.3 nm, 7.23 mV, and 0.715 mV, respectively. PTX was efficiently loaded into PTX/Aβ-CN-PMs, and the PTX release from rhApoE/PTX/Aβ-CN-PMs exhibited a sustained-release pattern in vitro. The formation of the ApoE-enriched protein corona significantly improved the cellular uptake of Aβ-CN-PMs on C6 cells and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and enhanced permeability to the blood–brain tumor barrier in vitro. Meanwhile, PTX/Aβ-CN-PMs with ApoE-enriched protein corona had a greater ability to inhibit cell proliferation and induce cell apoptosis than taxol. Importantly, PTX/Aβ-CN-PMs exhibited better anti-glioma effects and tissue distribution profile with rapid accumulation in glioma tissues in vivo and prolonged median survival of glioma-bearing mice compared to those associated with PMs without the ApoE protein corona.

Conclusions

The designed PTX/Aβ-CN-PMs exhibited significantly enhanced anti-glioma efficacy. Importantly, this study provided a strategy for the rational design of a protein corona-based brain-targeted drug delivery system. More crucially, we utilized the unfavorable side of the protein corona and converted it into an advantage to achieve brain-targeted drug delivery.

Graphical Abstract

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12951-021-01097-8.

The protein corona and its effects on nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems

In most cases, once nanoparticles (NPs) enter the blood, their surface is covered by biological molecules, especially proteins, forming a so-called protein corona (PC). As a result, what the cells of the body "see" is not the NPs as formulated by the chemists, but the PC. In this way, the PC can influence the effects of the NPs and even mask the desired effects of the NP components. While this can argue for trying to inhibit protein-nanomaterial interactions, encapsulating NPs in an endogenous PC may increase their clinical usefulness. In this review, we briefly introduce the concept of the PC, its formation and its effects on the behavior of NPs. We also discuss how to reduce the formation of PCs or exploit them to enhance NP functions. Studying the interactions between proteins and NPs will provide insights into their clinical activity in health and disease. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: The formation of protein corona (PC) will affect the operation of nanoparticles (NPs) in vivo. Since there are many proteins in the blood, it is impossible to completely overcome the formation of PC. Therefore, the use of PCs to deliver drug is the best choice. De-opsonins adsorbed on NPs can reduce macrophage phagocytosis and cytotoxicity of NPs, and prolong their circulation in blood. Albumin, apolipoprotein and transferrin are typical de-opsonins. In present review, we mainly discuss how to optimize the delivery of nanoparticles through the formation of albumin corona, transferrin corona and apolipoprotein corona in vivo or in vitro.

Emerging nanotaxanes for cancer therapy

The clinical application of taxane (including paclitaxel, docetaxel, and cabazitaxel)-based formulations is significantly impeded by their off-target distribution, unsatisfactory release, and acquired resistance/metastasis. Recent decades have witnessed a dramatic progress in the development of high-efficiency, low-toxicity nanotaxanes via the use of novel biomaterials and nanoparticulate drug delivery systems (nano-DDSs). Thus, in this review, the achievements of nanotaxanes-targeted delivery and stimuli-responsive nano-DDSs-in preclinical or clinical trials have been outlined. Then, emerging nanotherapeutics against tumor resistance and metastasis have been overviewed, with a particular emphasis on synergistic therapy strategies (e.g., combination with surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, biotherapy, immunotherapy, gas therapy, phototherapy, and multitherapy). Finally, the latest oral nanotaxanes have been briefly discussed.

A novel GSH-triggered polymeric nanomicelles for reversing MDR and enhancing antitumor efficiency of hydroxycamptothecin

Tumor multidrug resistance (MDR) is one of the main reasons for the failure of clinical chemotherapy. Here, a bio-responsive anti-drug-resistant polymer micelle that can respond to the reductive GSH in the tumor microenvironment (TME) for delivery of HCPT was designed. A new type of polymer with anti-drug resistance and anti-tumor effect was synthesized and used to encapsulated HCPT to form reduction-sensitive micelles (PDSAH) by a thin-film dispersion method. It is demonstrated that the micelle formulation improves the anti-tumor activity and biosafety of HCPT, and also plays a significant role in reversing the drug resistance, which contributes to inhibiting the tumor growth and prolonging the survival time of H22 tumor-bearing mice. The results indicate that this nanoplatform can serve as a flexible and powerful system for delivery of other drugs that are tolerated by tumors or bacteria.

In vivo protein corona on nanoparticles: does the control of all material parameters orient the biological behavior?

Nanomaterials have a huge potential in research fields from nanomedicine to medical devices. However, surface modifications of nanoparticles (NPs) and thus of their physicochemical properties failed to predict their biological behavior. This requires investigating the "missing link" at the nano-bio interface. The protein corona (PC), the set of proteins binding to the NPs surface, plays a critical role in particle recognition by the innate immune system. Still, in vitro incubation offers a limited understanding of biological interactions and fails to explain the in vivo fate. To date, several reports explained the impact of PC in vitro but its applications in the clinical field have been very limited. Furthermore, PC is often considered as a biological barrier reducing the targeting efficiency of nano vehicles. But the protein binding can actually be controlled by altering PC both in vitro and in vivo. Analyzing PC in vivo could accordingly provide a deep understanding of its biological effect and speed up the transfer to clinical applications. This review demonstrates the need for clarifications on the effect of PC in vivo and the control of its behavior by changing its physicochemical properties. It unfolds the recent in vivo developments to understand mechanisms and challenges at the nano-bio interface. Finally, it reports recent advances in the in vivo PC to overcome and control the limitations of the in vitro PC by employing PC as a boosting resource to prolong the NPs half-life, to improve their formulations and thereby to increase its use for biomedical applications.

The Therapeutic Efficacy of Dendrimer and Micelle Formulations for Breast Cancer Treatment

Breast cancer is among the most common types of cancer in women and it is the cause of a high rate of mortality globally. The use of anticancer drugs is the standard treatment approach used for this type of cancer. However, most of these drugs are limited by multi-drug resistance, drug toxicity, poor drug bioavailability, low water solubility, poor pharmacokinetics, etc. To overcome multi-drug resistance, combinations of two or more anticancer drugs are used. However, the combination of two or more anticancer drugs produce toxic side effects. Micelles and dendrimers are promising drug delivery systems that can overcome the limitations associated with the currently used anticancer drugs. They have the capability to overcome drug resistance, reduce drug toxicity, improve the drug solubility and bioavailability. Different classes of anticancer drugs have been loaded into micelles and dendrimers, resulting in targeted drug delivery, sustained drug release mechanism, increased cellular uptake, reduced toxic side effects of the loaded drugs with enhanced anticancer activity in vitro and in vivo. This review article reports the biological outcomes of dendrimers and micelles loaded with different known anticancer agents on breast cancer in vitro and in vivo.

The Biomolecular Corona of Lipid Nanoparticles for Gene Therapy

Gene therapy holds great potential for treating almost any disease by gene silencing, protein expression, or gene correction. To efficiently deliver the nucleic acid payload to its target tissue, the genetic material needs to be combined with a delivery platform. Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) have proven to be excellent delivery vectors for gene therapy and are increasingly entering into routine clinical practice. Over the past two decades, the optimization of LNP formulations for nucleic acid delivery has led to a well-established body of knowledge culminating in the first-ever RNA interference therapeutic using LNP technology, i.e., Onpattro, and many more in clinical development to deliver various nucleic acid payloads. Screening a lipid library in vivo for optimal gene silencing potency in hepatocytes resulted in the identification of the Onpattro formulation. Subsequent studies discovered that the key to Onpattro's liver tropism is its ability to form a specific "biomolecular corona". In fact, apolipoprotein E (ApoE), among other proteins, adsorbed to the LNP surface enables specific hepatocyte targeting. This proof-of-principle example demonstrates the use of the biomolecular corona for targeting specific receptors and cells, thereby opening up the road to rationally designing LNPs. To date, however, only a few studies have explored in detail the corona of LNPs, and how to efficiently modulate the corona remains poorly understood. In this review, we summarize recent discoveries about the biomolecular corona, expanding the knowledge gained with other nanoparticles to LNPs for nucleic acid delivery. In particular, we address how particle stability, biodistribution, and targeting of LNPs can be influenced by the biological environment. Onpattro is used as a case study to describe both the successful development of an LNP formulation for gene therapy and the key influence of the biological environment. Moreover, we outline the techniques available to isolate and analyze the corona of LNPs, and we highlight their advantages and drawbacks. Finally, we discuss possible implications of the biomolecular corona for LNP delivery and we examine the potential of exploiting the corona as a targeting strategy beyond the liver to develop next-generation gene therapies.

Nanoparticles Formulations of Artemisinin and Derivatives as Potential Therapeutics for the Treatment of Cancer, Leishmaniasis and Malaria

Cancer, malaria, and leishmaniasis remain the deadly diseases around the world although several strategies of treatment have been developed. However, most of the drugs used to treat the aforementioned diseases suffer from several pharmacological limitations such as poor pharmacokinetics, toxicity, drug resistance, poor bioavailability and water solubility. Artemisinin and its derivatives are antimalarial drugs. However, they also exhibit anticancer and antileishmanial activity. They have been evaluated as potential anticancer and antileishmanial drugs but their use is also limited by their poor water solubility and poor bioavailability. To overcome the aforementioned limitations associated with artemisinin and its derivatives used for the treatment of these diseases, they have been incorporated into nanoparticles. Several researchers incorporated this class of drugs into nanoparticles resulting in enhanced therapeutic outcomes. Their potential efficacy for the treatment of parasitic infections such as malaria and leishmaniasis and chronic diseases such as cancer has been reported. This review article will be focused on the nanoparticles formulations of artemisinin and derivatives for the treatment of cancer, malaria, and leishmaniasis and the biological outcomes (in vitro and in vivo).

Emerging well-tailored nanoparticulate delivery system based on in situ regulation of the protein corona

The protein corona significantly changes the nanoparticle (NP) identity both physicochemically and biologically, and in situ regulation of specific plasma protein adsorption on NP surfaces has emerged as a promising strategy for disease-targeting therapy. In the past decade, great progress in protein corona regulation has been achieved via surface chemistry-based nanomedicine development. This review first outlines the latest advances in bio-nano interactions, with special attention to factors that influence the protein corona, including NP physicochemical properties, the biological environment and the duration time. Second, NP surface chemistry strategies designed to inhibit and regulate protein corona formation are highlighted, with special emphasis on albumin, transferrin, apolipoprotein (apo) E, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and retinol binding protein 4 (RBP4). Finally, the current techniques used to characterize the protein corona are briefly discussed.