Abstract
Due to the high surface: volume ratio and the extraordinary properties arising from the nanoscale (optical, electric, magnetic, etc.), nanoparticles (NPs) are excellent candidates for multiple applications. In this context, nanoscience is opening a wide range of modern technologies in biological and biomedical fields, among others. However, one of the main drawbacks that still delays its fast evolution and effectiveness is related to the behavior of nanomaterials in the presence of biological fluids. Unfortunately, biological fluids are characterized by high ionic strengths which usually induce NP aggregation. Besides this problem, the high content in biomacromolecules—such as lipids, sugars, nucleic acids and, especially, proteins—also affects NP stability and its viability for some applications due to, for example, the formation of the protein corona around the NPs. Here, we will review the most common strategies to achieve stable NPs dispersions in high ionic strength fluids and, also, antifouling strategies to avoid the protein adsorption.
Highlights
The use of inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) for biological and medical applications has attracted great attention in recent decades. This is clearly demonstrated by the large increase in publications reporting the use of nanotechnology for biomedical purposes [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10], which can be summarized in three main properties arising from the nanoscale: (i) the similar size to biomacromolecules allows for a better interaction of NPs with cells and biomolecules [11]; (ii) the high NP surface: volume ratio facilitates the incorporation of a high density of functional moieties [12]; and, (iii) the unique physicochemical properties derived from the nanoscale size
In contrast with the electrostatic stabilization, where the charge is defined during the synthesis steps stabilization, where the charge is defined during the synthesis steps of the NPs, steric stabilization of the NPs, steric stabilization usually requires an additional step of functionalization of the usually requires an additional step of functionalization of the preformed colloids (Figure 1) [29,30]
The stability of these particles was monitored in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) plus 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) in a normal cell culture condition without observing any detectable agglomeration
Summary
The use of inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) for biological and medical applications has attracted great attention in recent decades. Neutralized with the subsequent aggregation due todue vanto dervan electrostatic electrostatic stabilization largely fails to provide sufficient colloidal stability in biological media. In contrast with the electrostatic stabilization, where the charge is defined during the synthesis steps stabilization, where the charge is defined during the synthesis steps of the NPs, steric stabilization of the NPs, steric stabilization usually requires an additional step of functionalization of the usually requires an additional step of functionalization of the preformed colloids (Figure 1) [29,30]. Thisparticles corona can causethe so-called “protein [31,32,33,34,35] This corona can cause two main issues: particle destabilization two main issues: corona”.
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