Probing Bioinspired Transport of Nanoparticles into Polymersomes

摘要

In biology the control of transmembrane transport is fundamental to functionality. The complexity of biological membranes and the diverse coupling of interactions, however, make direct investigations very difficult. Therefore the construction of synthetic artificial model membranes to study systematically their physical and chemical characteristics, and to find out how membrane functions can be modified and tuned, is of fundamental interest. Here we present a novel minimal model system, which allows the uncoupling of all interactions and processes. The model system is based on a vesicle-forming copolymer, and we report on the experimental observation of nanoparticles transport into polymersomes. A combination of photon and fluorescence correlation spectroscopies is used to study the internalization in detail. These techniques provide information about the kinetics and dynamics of this process in real time. The resulting picture is supported by cryo-TEM imaging. The new possibility of studying nanoparticle internalization processes on the basis of an artificial model system presented here opens a new pathway for the fundamental understanding, and hence control, of nanoparticle uptake processes in living cells.