Protein Corona Mediated Stealth Properties of Biocompatible Carbohydrate-based Nanocarriers

Carbohydrates possess ideal properties for the synthesis of biocompatible nanocarriers. Therefore, hydroxyethyl starch was chosen as building material to produce biodegradable nanocarriers allowing the encapsulation of drugs. A mandatory feature for the successful application of nanocarriers in drug delivery is to avoid non-specific uptake into macrophages. Todays’ gold standard is poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) attached onto the surface of nanocarriers. As alternatives, we synthesize completely carbohydrate-based nanocarriers by functionalizing the surface with different sugar derivatives (hydroxyethyl starch, dextran, or glucose) via copper-free click reaction. Studying the interaction of sugar-modified nanocarriers and plasma proteins indicates a strong enrichment of adsorbed ‘stealth’ proteins (clusterin) which are also identified on PEGylated nanocarriers. Cellular uptake studies proved that there is no unspecific interaction between carbohydrate- modified nanocarriers and phagocytic cells, herby underlining the stealth properties.