Biological Applications

The need for new innovative treatments has led to the increase in nanoparticle (NP) research. NPs can improve treatment through drug delivery, cellular imaging and gene therapy. To properly use NPs for treatment, it is important to understand how NPs interact with the cellular environment. Recent research was done that compared cellular binding on cationic and anionic polystyrene NPs [1]. The results concluded that the cellular binding of cationic polystyrene NPs was enhanced in the presence of serum proteins and inhibited in the absence of serum proteins. The results also entailed that anionic polystyrene NPs cellular binding was inhibited in the presence of serum proteins and enhanced in the absence of serum proteins [1]. Serum proteins are a mixture of multiple proteins that are isolated from whole blood. Serum proteins may influence how NPs bind to cells because they have select sites on the cell where they bind [2]. The purpose of this research was to measure quantum dot (QD) binding to cells in the presence and absence of serum proteins and compare to prior work done with polystyrene NPs and cellular binding.