Bovine Serum Albumin Conjugation on Poly(methyl Methacrylate) Nanoparticles for Targeted Drug Delivery Applications

During the application of nanoparticles (NPs) in vivo, it is inevitable that the adsorption of proteins takes place on the surface of the nanocarriers. The formation of this protein corona determines the “identity” of the NPs and how they interact with complex biological media. By controlling the composition of the protein corona it becomes possible to improve properties of NPs and promote targeted drug delivery. In this work, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) NPs were conjugated with bovine serum albumin (BSA) by a non-covalent method. The successful conjugation of BSA to PMMA NPs was confirmed by a set of different techniques, such as dynamic light scattering, zeta potential, transmission electron microscopy, Lowry protein quantification assay and flow cytometry. Cytotoxicity assays were also performed and the results shows that NPs and conjugates did not present any cytotoxic effect on the tested cells. Cell uptake assays showed that the conjugation of BSA on PMMA NPs increased cellular uptake by HeLa cells in comparison to uncoated PMMA NPs, which is an important feature for successful drug delivery applications. These results are important evidence that it is possible to control the interaction of nanocarriers with cells, by designing a pre-formed protein corona through simple non-covalent conjugation.