Examining Nanoparticle Interactions on a Cellular Scale Using Correlative Light Electron Microscopy

• Main Author: Brian Caffrey
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Techland Publishing Group Limited 2021-03-01
• Series: Molecular Biology & Nanomedicine
• Subjects: clem; focused ion beam-scanning electronmicroscopy (fib-sem); confocal microscopy; nanoparticle-cell interactions; transferrin-mediated uptake
• Online Access: http://mbn.techlandgroup.com/index.php?c=articles&a=view&id=27

One key area of nanomedicine research isthe mechanism of action of nanoparticles within the body, it’s biodistributionand pharmacokinetic properties. However, insight into the nanoparticle-cellinterface is limited, due in part to the heterogeneous nature of nanoparticlesas a drug class and the numerous possible interactions between cell andnanoparticle which stem from this diversity such as surface modifications,particle composition and final target tissue. Knowledge of the specific eventswhich occur once a nanotherapeutic has reached its target are still very earlyin development, this is in part due to the difficulty of resolving interactionsin sufficient spatiotemporal resolutions for a concrete understanding of themechanism for nanoparticle-cellular uptake. However, this is cruciallyimportant for our understanding of the therapeutic capabilities ofnanoconstructs as a whole. Traditionally, thestudy of nanoparticle-cellinteractions has remained exclusively in either the light or electronmicroscopies, sacrificing either high resolution cellular information oraccurate identification of specific biomolecules through fluorescent markersrespectively. This study demonstrates a method for the study and categorizationof nanoparticle-cell interactions using Correlative Light Electron Microscopy(CLEM), towards monitoring different drug delivery methods and their effect ontarget tissues at high resolutions.