Abstract
Ultra-small nanoparticles with sizes comparable to those of pores in the cellular membrane possess significant potential for application in the field of biomedicine. Silicon carbide ultra-small nanoparticles with varying surface termination were tested for the biological system represented by different human cells (using a human osteoblastic cell line as the reference system and a monocyte/macrophage cell line as immune cells). The three tested nanoparticle surface terminations resulted in the observation of different effects on cell metabolic activity. These effects were mostly noticeable in cases of monocytic cells, where each type of particle caused a completely different response (‘as-prepared’ particles, i.e., were highly cytotoxic, –OH terminated particles slightly increased the metabolic activity, while –NH2 terminated particles caused an almost doubled metabolic activity) after 24 h of incubation. Subsequently, the release of cytokines from such treated monocytes and their differentiation into activated cells was determined. The results revealed the potential modulation of immune cell behavior following stimulation with particular ultra-small nanoparticles, thus opening up new fields for novel silicon carbide nanoparticle biomedical applications.
Highlights
The knowledge of nanoparticles (NPs) and their potential application in the field of biomedicine as drug delivery [1,2], therapeutic [3,4,5], and diagnostic platforms and imaging devices [6] have improved significantly over recent years
The differing surface termination of otherwise identical NPs is of particular interest due to the potential for further modification and cluster formation as well as in terms of their influence on the overall cellular response [15,16,17,18]
As soon as any NP is administered into a biological fluid, the particles form a new identity from the various components of the surrounding environment that is widely known as the biomolecular or protein corona (PC) since it is formed by biomolecules and, principally, by proteins [19]
Summary
The knowledge of nanoparticles (NPs) and their potential application in the field of biomedicine as drug delivery [1,2], therapeutic [3,4,5], and diagnostic platforms and imaging devices [6] have improved significantly over recent years. As soon as any NP is administered into a biological fluid (a cultivation medium in vitro or blood in vivo), the particles form a new identity from the various components of the surrounding environment that is widely known as the biomolecular or protein corona (PC) since it is formed by biomolecules and, principally, by proteins [19]. This new identity serves as a particle-cell interaction mediator [20,21,22]. The commonly presented PC concept cannot be applied in the case of ultra-small NPs since they are mostly of the same size or smaller than the individual components (proteins) that usually form the corona; their interaction with FBS proteins should not be overlooked [23]
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