Limited impact of the protein corona on the cellular uptake of PEGylated zein micelles by melanoma cancer cells

Jitkasem Meewan, Sukrut Somani, Partha Laskar, Craig Irving, Margaret Mullin, Stuart Woods, Craig W. Roberts, Abdullah R. Alzahrani, Valerie A. Ferro, Suzanne McGill, Stefan Weidt , Richard Burchmore , Christine Dufès

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Abstract

The formation of a protein layer "corona" on nanoparticle surface upon entry in a biological environment was shown to strongly influence the interactions with cells, especially affecting the uptake of nanomedicines. In this work, we present the impact of the protein corona on the uptake of PEGylated zein micelles by cancer cells, macrophages, and dendritic cells. Zein was successfully conjugated with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) of varying chain lengths (5K and 10K) and assembled into micelles. Our results demonstrated that PEGylation conferred stealth effects to the zein micelles. The presence of human plasma did not impact the uptake levels of the micelles by melanoma cancer cells, regardless of the PEG chain length used. In contrast, it decreased the uptake by macrophages and dendritic cells. These results therefore make PEGylated zein micelles promising as potential drug delivery systems for cancer therapy.
Original languageEnglish
Article number439
Number of pages19
JournalPharmaceutics
Volume14
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 18 Feb 2022

Keywords

  • zein micelles
  • poly(ethylene glycol)
  • protein corona
  • cellular uptake
  • cancer cells
  • macrophages;
  • dendritic cells

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