Liposomes, especially cationic liposomes, are the most common and well-investigated nanocarriers for biomedical applications, such as drug and gene delivery. Like other types of nanomaterials, once liposomes are incubated in a biological milieu, their surface can be immediately cloaked by biological components to form a protein corona, which confers a new ‘biological identity’ and modulates downstream interactions with cells. However, it remains unclear how the protein corona affects the transportation mechanism after liposomes interact with cells. Here, we employed home-made aggregation-induced-emission-visualized nanoliposomes TR4@Lipo as a model to investigate transportation with or without the protein corona by optical imaging techniques. The results show that the protein corona can change the cellular transportation mechanism of TR4@Lipo from energy-independent membrane fusion to energy-dependent endocytosis. The protein corona also modulates the intracellular distribution of loaded cargoes. This knowledge furthers our understanding of bio-nano interactions and is important for the efficient use of cationic liposomes.

中文翻译：

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AIE 可视化纳米脂质体的运输主要由蛋白冠

脂质体，尤其是阳离子脂质体，是生物医学应用（例如药物和基因递送）中最常见和研究最充分的纳米载体。与其他类型的纳米材料一样，一旦脂质体在生物环境中孵育，它们的表面就会立即被生物成分掩盖，形成蛋白质冠，从而赋予新的“生物学特性”并调节下游与细胞的相互作用。然而，在脂质体与细胞相互作用后，蛋白冠如何影响转运机制仍不清楚。在这里，我们使用自制的聚集诱导发射可视化纳米脂质体 TR4@Lipo 作为模型，通过光学成像技术研究有或没有蛋白冠的运输。结果表明，蛋白冠可以改变TR4@Lipo的细胞转运机制，从能量非依赖性膜融合转变为能量依赖性内吞作用。蛋白冠还调节装载货物的细胞内分布。这些知识进一步加深了我们对生物纳米相互作用的理解，对于阳离子脂质体的有效使用非常重要。