Polyethylene glycol (PEG) has been widely used for the stabilization of plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) in physiological media because they can prevent NPs aggregation, reduce undesired interactions with proteins, and increases blood circulation lifetime by decreasing their susceptibility to phagocytosis. However, PEG can provoke an immune response in the body of humans and other animals. Glycans have emerged as alternatives to PEG with exploitable properties that make them unique candidates to employ in the field of nanotechnology and nanomedicine. Here, we demonstrated the ability of sialic acid terminated glycopeptides coated gold NPs (glyco-NPs) to i) increase their colloidal stability and biocompatibility, and ii) keep targeting properties of NPs in a complex biological medium and impact the NP biological fate. Our results indicated that the glycans bound on the NP surface are biologically active as they are capable of binding to glycan-binding proteins (or lectins) in free and protein-rich media. We have further evaluated the glyco-NPs cellular update by an in vitro/ in vivo uptake study and confirm a lower NPs uptake as a result of the glycan functionalization. We supported our study with a full characterization profile, including UV/vis spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, analytical disk centrifuge, zeta potential, horizontal gel electrophoresis, flow cytometry, ICP-MS, among others. Overall, the achieved results explored the impact of glycans coated NPs on their biological fate towards clinical translation.

Glycans coated nanoparticles as a biocompatible shield to increase nanoparticles' colloidal stability and modulate their biological response

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.