Exploiting Receptors Competition to Enhance Nanoparticles Binding Selectivity

Stefano Angioletti-Uberti

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.118.068001

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arXiv · 1609.03510

Exploiting Receptors Competition to Enhance Nanoparticles Binding Selectivity

Stefano Angioletti-Uberti

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Abstract

Nanoparticles functionalized with multiple ligands can be programmed to bind biological targets depending on the receptors they express, providing a general mechanism exploited in various technologies, from selective drug-delivery to biosensing. For binding to be highly selective, ligands should exclusively interact with specific targeted receptors, because formation of bonds with other, untargeted ones would lead to non-specific binding and potentially harmful behaviour. This poses a particular problem for multivalent nanoparticles, because even very weak bonds can collectively lead to strong binding. A statistical mechanical model is used here to describe how competition between different receptors together with multivalent effects can be harnessed to design ligand-functionalized nanoparticles insensitive to the presence of untargeted receptors, are insensitive to these problems, preventing non-specific binding.

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Stefano Angioletti-Uberti. 2017-02-15. Exploiting Receptors Competition to Enhance Nanoparticles Binding Selectivity. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.118.068001

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