Self-assembly of patterned nanoparticles on cellular membranes: effect of charge distribution

Nanoparticle-assisted drug delivery has been emerging as an active research area. Achieving high drug loading is only one facet of drug delivery issues; it is also important to investigate the effect of surface charge distribution on self-assembly of nanoparticles on cellular membranes. By considering the electrostatic distribution of patterned nanoparticles, we used dissipative particle dynamics simulations to investigate the self-assembly of pattern charged nanoparticles with five different surface charged patterns. It is found that both surface charged pattern and nanoparticle size significantly affect the self-assembly of nanoparticles on cellular membranes. Results indicate that 1/2 pattern charged small nanoparticles can self-assemble into dendritic structures, while those with a 1/4 pattern self-assemble into clusters. As the nanoparticle size increases, 1/2 pattern charged medium nanoparticles can self-assemble into linear structures, while those with a 1/4 pattern self-assemble into clusters. For very large nanoparticles, both 1/2 pattern and 1/4 pattern charged nanoparticles self-assemble into flaky structures with different connections. By considering the effects of surface charged pattern and nanoparticle size on self-assembly, we found that nanoparticle self-assembly requires a minimum effective charged area. When the local charged area of nanoparticles is less than the threshold, surface charge cannot induce nanoparticle self-assembly; that is, the surface charged pattern of a nanoparticle would determine effectively the self-assembly structure. It is expected that this work will provide guidance for nanoparticle-assisted drug delivery.