Complete high-density lipoproteins in nanoparticle corona

Area of Science:

• Nanomedicine
• Biomaterials Science
• Biochemistry

Background:

• Nanoparticles in biological environments acquire a biomolecular corona.
• Previous studies focused only on protein corona composition.
• The biological identity and impact of nanoparticles are determined by their corona.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the lipid binding of copolymer nanoparticles.
• To determine if nanoparticles bind lipids beyond proteins.
• To understand the implications of lipid binding for nanoparticle biological identity.

Main Methods:

• Size exclusion chromatography
• Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy
• Pull-down assays
• Fractionation of human plasma lipoproteins

Main Results:

• Copolymer nanoparticles bind cholesterol, triglycerides, and phospholipids from human plasma.
• Lipid binding reaches saturation and mirrors high-density lipoprotein (HDL) composition.
• HDL shows high specificity for copolymer nanoparticles, likely mediated by apolipoprotein A-I.

Conclusions:

• Copolymer nanoparticles bind complete HDL complexes, not just individual lipids or proteins.
• Nanoparticles may be recognized as HDL by biological systems, accessing HDL transport pathways.
• Lipid and lipoprotein binding is a general characteristic of nanoparticles in physiological conditions.