Stochastic Dynamics of Nanoparticle and Virus Uptake

The cellular uptake of nanoparticles or viruses requires that the gain of adhesion energy overcomes the cost of plasma membrane bending. It is well known that this leads to a minimal particle size for uptake. Using a simple deterministic theory for this process, we first show that, for the same radi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 122; no. 8; p. 088102
Main Authors Frey, Felix, Ziebert, Falko, Schwarz, Ulrich S
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.03.2019
Subjects
Models, Biological
Nanoparticles - chemistry
Nanoparticles - metabolism
Stochastic Processes
Virus Internalization
Viruses - chemistry
Viruses - metabolism
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Summary:The cellular uptake of nanoparticles or viruses requires that the gain of adhesion energy overcomes the cost of plasma membrane bending. It is well known that this leads to a minimal particle size for uptake. Using a simple deterministic theory for this process, we first show that, for the same radius and volume, cylindrical particles should be taken up faster than spherical particles, both for normal and parallel orientations. We then address stochastic effects, which are expected to be relevant due to small system size, and show that, now, spherical particles can have a faster uptake because the mean first passage time profits from the multiplicative noise induced by the spherical geometry. We conclude that stochastic effects are strongly geometry dependent and may favor spherical shapes during adhesion-driven particle uptake.
ISSN:1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.088102