Nanoparticle and Protein Corona

Abstract

Nanoparticles and other nanomaterials are increasingly considered for use in biomedical applications such as imaging, drug delivery, and hyperthermic therapies. Thus, understanding the interaction of nanomaterials with biological systems becomes key for their safe and efficient application. It is increasingly being accepted that the surface of nanomaterials would be covered by protein corona upon their entrance to the biological medium. The biological medium will then see the achieved modified surface of nanomaterials, and therefore further cellular/tissue responses depend on the composition of corona. In this chapter, we describe the corona variations according to the physicochemical properties of nanomaterials (e.g., size, shape, surface charge, surface functional groups, and hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity). Besides the nanomaterials’ effects, the role of environment factors, such as protein source and slight temperature variations, is discussed in details.