Nanostructures of drug carriers play a crucial role in nanomedicine due to their ability to influence drug delivery. There is yet no clear consensus regarding the optimal size and shape (e.g., aspect ratio) of nanoparticles for minimizing macrophage uptake, given the difficulties in controlling the shape and size of nanoparticles while maintaining identical surface properties. Here, we employed graft copolymer self-assembly to prepare polymer micelles with aspect ratios ranging from 1.0 (spherical) to 10.8 (cylindrical) and closely matched interfacial properties. Notably, our findings emphasize that cylindrical micelles with an aspect ratio of 2.4 are the least susceptible to macrophage uptake compared with both their longer counterparts and spherical micelles. This reduced uptake of the short cylindrical micelles results in a 3.3-fold increase in blood circulation time compared with their spherical counterparts. Controlling the aspect ratio of nanoparticles is crucial for improving drug delivery efficacy through better nanoparticle design.

中文翻译：

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通过控制接枝共聚物胶束的长径比来操纵巨噬细胞的摄取

药物载体的纳米结构由于其影响药物输送的能力而在纳米医学中发挥着至关重要的作用。鉴于控制纳米颗粒的形状和尺寸同时保持相同的表面性质的困难，关于用于最小化巨噬细胞摄取的纳米颗粒的最佳尺寸和形状（例如，长宽比）尚未达成明确的共识。在这里，我们采用接枝共聚物自组装来制备聚合物胶束，其长径比范围为1.0（球形）至10.8（圆柱形）且界面性能紧密匹配。值得注意的是，我们的研究结果强调，与较长的对应物和球形胶束相比，长径比为 2.4 的圆柱形胶束最不容易被巨噬细胞摄取。与球形胶束相比，短圆柱形胶束的吸收减少导致血液循环时间增加 3.3 倍。控制纳米粒子的长宽比对于通过更好的纳米粒子设计来提高药物递送功效至关重要。