Issue 20, 2014

Cooperative wrapping of nanoparticles by membrane tubes

Abstract

The bioactivity of nanoparticles crucially depends on their ability to cross biomembranes. Recent simulations indicate the cooperative wrapping and internalization of spherical nanoparticles in tubular membrane structures. In this article, we systematically investigate the energy gain of this cooperative wrapping by minimizing the energies of the rotationally symmetric shapes of the membrane tubes and of membrane segments wrapping single particles. We find that the energy gain for the cooperative wrapping of nanoparticles in membrane tubes relative to their individual wrapping as single particles strongly depends on the ratio ρ/R of the particle radius R and the range ρ of the particle–membrane adhesion potential. For a potential range of the order of one nanometer, the cooperative wrapping in tubes is highly favorable for particles with a radius of tens of nanometers and intermediate adhesion energies, but not for particles that are significantly larger.

Graphical abstract: Cooperative wrapping of nanoparticles by membrane tubes

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 Sep 2013
Accepted
20 Dec 2013
First published
10 Feb 2014

Soft Matter, 2014,10, 3570-3577

Cooperative wrapping of nanoparticles by membrane tubes

M. Raatz, R. Lipowsky and T. R. Weikl, Soft Matter, 2014, 10, 3570 DOI: 10.1039/C3SM52498A

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