Volume 87, June 2024, 103108Author links open overlay panel, Highlights•

Tailored design of nanoparticles is important for the personalized medicine.

•

Size, shape, and surface chemistry of nanoparticles can be precisely engineered.

•

Depending on the type of nanoparticle, available size, shape and surface chemistry vary.

Biomedical applications of nanoparticles (NPs) have attracted much attention. With the advancement of personalized medicine, researchers are now proposing the concept that the design of NPs needs to be optimized according to the individual patient. To realize this concept, an important question is how precisely we can tailor the physicochemical properties of NPs, such as size, shape, and surface chemistry, using current technology. This review discusses recent advances and challenges in the precise control of the size, shape, and surface chemistry of NPs. While control methods have advanced significantly over the past 20 years, the size, shape, and surface chemistry of currently available NPs vary by type, requiring careful selection based on the targeted disease, organ, and patient.

Section snippetsBackground: requirements for the tailored design of the physicochemical properties of nanoparticles

Colloidal nanoparticles (NPs) have attracted considerable attention in the field of biotechnology, including drug delivery, bioimaging, and biosensing. In these applications, the key difference between NPs and their molecular analogs is that the former exists in a solid form with a distinct interface. Consequently, even when their atomic/molecular compositions are identical, their physicochemical properties, such as size, shape, and surface chemistry, vary considerably. These physicochemical

Precise control of the size and shape of nanoparticles

Various NP types, including inorganic NPs (e.g. quantum dots [QDs], gold NPs, iron oxide NPs, and silica NPs), polymeric nanospheres, polymeric micelles, liposomes, and lipid NPs, have been investigated for biomedical applications. Intensive research has been conducted on each type of NPs to achieve the precise control of their size 13, 14, 15, 16. For example, the use of an iron-oleate complex as a precursor, together with the boiling-temperature control through solvent-mixture design, enabled

Precise control of the surface of nanoparticles

To achieve specific function of NPs in the biological environment, the surface modification of NPs has been proposed as an efficient method. For example, to target the specific biomolecule (e.g. antigen specifically overexpressed on the diseased cells), surface modification of NPs with molecular recognition moieties, including antibodies, peptides, and aptamers, has been reported to be effective [43]. Moreover, vitamins (e.g. vitamin D and folate), sugars (e.g. glucose and mannose), and

Conclusion and outlook

The precise control of NP size, shape, and surface chemistry has significantly advanced over the last 20 years. On the other hand, we also need to be aware that the available size, shape, and surface chemistry varies with the type of NPs, and thus we need to choose the appropriate type of NPs according to the targeted disease, organ, and patient. Further investigation into more robust and versatile control methods, particularly for the shape and number of surface molecules, is expected to

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Noriko Nakamura: Conceptualization, Writing – original draft. Seiichi Ohta: Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Japan Science and Technology Agency Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology (grant number JPMJPR20A1) and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI (grant numbers: 21H01722 and 21K20478).

References and recommended reading (60)D. Samanta et al.Programmable matter: the nanoparticle atom and DNA bond

Adv Mater

(2022)

S. Clarke et al.Covalent monofunctionalization of peptide-coated quantum dots for single-molecule assays

Nano Lett

(2010)

M. Zhu et al.Physicochemical properties determine nanomaterial cellular uptake, transport, and fate

Acc Chem Res

(2013)

S.D. Perrault et al.Mediating tumor targeting efficiency of nanoparticles through design

Nano Lett

(2009)

L. Tang et al.Investigating the optimal size of anticancer nanomedicine

Proc Natl Acad Sci USA

(2014)

H. Cabral et al.Accumulation of sub-100 nm polymeric micelles in poorly permeable tumours depends on size

Nat Nanotechnol

(2011)

H. Sarin et al.Effective transvascular delivery of nanoparticles across the blood-brain tumor barrier into malignant glioma cells

J Transl Med

(2008)

S. Ohta et al.Investigating the optimum size of nanoparticles for their delivery into the brain assisted by focused ultrasound-induced blood–brain barrier opening

Sci Rep

(2020)

B.A. Aguado et al.Engineering precision biomaterials for personalized medicine

Sci Transl Med

(2018)

M.J. Mitchell et al.Engineering precision nanoparticles for drug delivery

Nat Rev Drug Discov

(2021)

T. Li et al.Surgical tumor-derived photothermal nanovaccine for personalized cancer therapy and prevention

Nano Lett

(2022)

J. Park et al.Synthesis of monodisperse spherical nanocrystals

Angew Chem Int Ed

(2007)

J.P. Rao et al.Polymer nanoparticles: preparation techniques and size-control parameters

Prog Polym Sci

(2011)

H. Wei et al.Exceedingly small iron oxide nanoparticles as positive MRI contrast agents

Proc Natl Acad Sci USA

(2017)

N. Nakamura et al.Facile and wide-range size tuning of conjugated polymer nanoparticles for biomedical applications as a fluorescent probe

RSC Adv

(2022)

Y. Maeda et al.DNA-Mediated,On-Membrane Sequential Assembly of Conjugated Polymer Nanoparticles for Sensitive Detection of Cell Surface Markers

Adv Funct Mater

(2024)

Y. Pu et al.Colloidal synthesis of semiconductor quantum dots toward large-scale production: a review

Ind Eng Chem Res

(2018)

S.D. Perrault et al.Synthesis and surface modification of highly monodispersed, spherical gold nanoparticles of 50−200 nm

J Am Chem Soc

(2009)

J. Park et al.Ultra-large-scale syntheses of monodisperse nanocrystals

Nat Mater

(2004)

T. Yokoi et al.Mechanism of formation of uniform-sized silica nanospheres catalyzed by basic amino acids

Chem Mater

(2009)

View full text

© 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.