The unique and adjustable properties of nanoparticles present enormous opportunities for their use as targeted drug delivery vectors. For example, nanoparticles functionalized with key surface ligands have been shown to pass through phospholipid bilayers without causing localised disruption. However, the further effects nanoparticles have on multi-component phospholipid bilayers remain unclear. We use coarse-grained computational models to investigate the structural properties of mixed phospholipid bilayers in the presence of ligand-functionalized nanoparticles. Model bilayers are composed of DPPC, DUPC, DFPC and cholesterol, and the nanoparticles are striped with a hydrophobic-ligand band and charged-ligand spherical caps. Our results show that nanoparticles aggregate near unsaturated phospholipid regions, phospholipid bilayer phase-separation is promoted in the presence of nanoparticles, and the heterogeneous components of a phospholipid bilayer play a significant role in the lateral organization of nanoparticles. This study highlights the need for considering the complexity of realistic phospholipid bilayers when optimising ligand functionalized nanoparticles for efficient drug delivery vectors.

中文翻译：

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混合磷脂双层中条纹状纳米颗粒的聚集。

纳米颗粒的独特且可调节的性质为将其用作靶向药物递送载体提供了巨大的机会。例如，已显示用关键表面配体官能化的纳米颗粒可通过磷脂双层，而不会引起局部破坏。然而，纳米粒子对多组分磷脂双层的进一步影响尚不清楚。我们使用粗粒度计算模型来研究在配体官能化的纳米粒子存在下混合磷脂双层的结构特性。模型双层由DPPC，DUPC，DFPC和胆固醇组成，并且纳米颗粒的条带带有疏水配体带和带电配体球形帽。我们的结果表明，纳米粒子聚集在不饱和磷脂区域附近，在存在纳米颗粒的情况下促进了磷脂双层的相分离，并且磷脂双层的异质组分在纳米颗粒的侧向组织中起重要作用。这项研究强调了在优化配体官能化的纳米颗粒以实现有效的药物递送载体时，需要考虑现实的磷脂双层的复杂性。