Influence of Folate-Targeted Gold Nanoparticles on Subcellular Localization and Distribution into Lysosomes

The cell interaction, mechanism of cell entry and intracellular fate of surface decorated nanoparticles are known to be affected by the surface density of targeting agents. However, the correlation between nanoparticles multivalency and kinetics of the cell uptake process and disposition of intracellular compartments is complicated and dependent on a number of physicochemical and biological parameters, including the ligand, nanoparticle composition and colloidal properties, features of targeted cells, etc. Here, we have carried out an in-depth investigation on the impact of increasing folic acid density on the kinetic uptake process and endocytic route of folate (FA)-targeted fluorescently labelled gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). A set of AuNPs (15 nm mean size) produced by the Turkevich method was decorated with 0–100 FA-PEG(3.5kDa)-SH molecules/particle, and the surface was saturated with about 500 rhodamine-PEG(2kDa)-SH fluorescent probes. In vitro studies carried out using folate receptor overexpressing KB cells (KB(FR-high)) showed that the cell internalization progressively increased with the ligand surface density, reaching a plateau at 50:1 FA-PEG(3.5kDa)-SH/particle ratio. Pulse-chase experiments showed that higher FA density (50 FA-PEG(3.5kDa)-SH molecules/particle) induces more efficient particle internalization and trafficking to lysosomes, reaching the maximum concentration in lysosomes at 2 h, than the lower FA density of 10 FA-PEG(3.5kDa)-SH molecules/particle. Pharmacological inhibition of endocytic pathways and TEM analysis showed that particles with high folate density are internalized predominantly by a clathrin-independent process.