The effect of complex shape design of microparticles on endocytosis

Yuanzu He, Purdue University

Abstract

Chemotherapy, a common treatment for cancer, requires delivering anticancer into the cancer cells to kill these cancer cells. This treatment is ineffective even though the drugs may be effective due to poor penetration of drugs into the cancer cells. Previous studies have shown physical designs of the microparticles and nanoparticles, specifically the size, charge, and shape designs have an effect on endocytosis. Improving the physical designs of the drug carriers can increase the anticancer drug uptake efficiency and performance. For the shape design research, the past research studied simple shapes such as sphere and cylinder. To have a deep understanding of shape effect on cellular uptake, this research focused on studying more comprehensive and complex keyboard characters shapes to explore their effects on cellular uptake. The results showed that shapes with higher aspect ratio and sharper angular features has a higher chance of adhering to the cells and become internalized by the cancer cells. The local interaction between the cell membrane and the part of the microparticle in contact with the cell membrane also plays a crucial role in determining the outcome.

Degree

M.S.

Advisors

Park, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Biomedical engineering

COinS