Overview of the main methods used to combine proteins with nanosystems: absorption, bioconjugation, and encapsulation

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Authors: Mariagrazia Di Marco, Shaharum Shamsuddin, Khairunisak Abdul Razak, et al

Published Date December 2009 , Volume 2010:5

Mariagrazia Di Marco¹, Shaharum Shamsuddin², Khairunisak Abdul Razak³, Azlan Abdul Aziz⁴, Corinne Devaux¹, Elsa Borghi¹, Laurent Levy¹, Claudia Sadun⁵

¹Nanobiotix, Paris, France; ²School of Health Sciences, Health Campus Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kelantan, Malaysia; ³School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering, Engineering Campus, ⁴School of Physics, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia; ⁵Department of Chemistry, Sapienza, University of Rome, Rome, Italy

Abstract: The latest development of protein engineering allows the production of proteins having desired properties and large potential markets, but the clinical advances of therapeutical proteins are still limited by their fragility. Nanotechnology could provide optimal vectors able to protect from degradation therapeutical biomolecules such as proteins, enzymes or specific polypeptides. On the other hand, some proteins can be also used as active ligands to help nanoparticles loaded with chemotherapeutic or other drugs to reach particular sites in the body. The aim of this review is to provide an overall picture of the general aspects of the most successful approaches used to combine proteins with nanosystems. This combination is mainly achieved by absorption, bioconjugation and encapsulation. Interactions of nanoparticles with biomolecules and caveats related to protein denaturation are also pointed out. A clear understanding of nanoparticle-protein interactions could make possible the design of precise and versatile hybrid nanosystems. This could further allow control of their pharmacokinetics as well as activity, and safety.

Keywords: nanoparticles, drug delivery, proteins, polypeptides, absorption, bioconjugation, encapsulation