(462c) Adhesive Interactions of Flexible Nanofilaments Versus Nanogels with Biological Cell Membranes

Advances in nanomedicine have led to the development of polymeric nanostructures offering diverse functionalities, enhancing the efficiency of therapeutic delivery in the treatment and diagnosis of diseases, such as cancer. Particular interest has arisen in flexible polymeric nanoparticles, distinguished by their unique architectures and physicochemical properties, for navigating biological barriers in site-specific drug delivery. In this talk, we present an in-silico investigation into the binding interactions of two types of flexible polymeric nanoparticles – nanofilaments and core-shell nanogels – with cell membrane expressing receptors. Our in-silico model is developed using a multiscale computational framework integrating a continuum field model for the cell membrane with coarse-grained models for nanofilaments and nanogels. Employing our recently proposed thermodynamic methods powered by free energy analysis, we evaluate the binding avidity of nanofilaments versus core-shell nanogels as a function of physicochemical factors and nanoparticle crowding. We aim to elucidate the effect of nanoparticle architecture and deformability on their binding efficiency and ultimately their cell uptake. This research could open up avenues for rational engineering and fine-tuning of new flexible nanosystems in targeted drug delivery.

This work is supported by NSF Grant CBET-2327899 and Oracle for Research.