Recent experiments have pointed out that cellular uptake is strongly dependent on the physical dimensions of endocytosed nanoparticles and tile optimal radius of endocytosed virus-like particle coated by transferrin is around 50 nm. As the same time, the dimensions of receptor-ligand complex have strong effects on the size-dependent exclusion of proteins ill cell environments. Inspired by these experimental results, a continuum elastic model is constructed to resolve the relationship between the dinlensions of receptor-ligand complex and the optimal radius of endocytosed virus-like particle. These results demonstrate that the optimal radius of endocytosed virus-like particle depends on the dimensions of reeeptor-ligand complex and the dimension of receptor-ligand complex reduces the depletion zone.
Recent simulations have demonstrated that bioparticle size and shape modulate the process of endocytosis, and studies have provided more quantitative information that the endocytosis efficiency of spherocylindrical bioparticles is decided by its aspect ratio. At the same time, the dimensions of the receptor-ligand complex have strong effects on the size-dependent exclusion of proteins within the cellular environment. However, these earlier theoretical works including simulations did not consider the effects of ligand-receptor complex dimension on the endocytosis process. Thus, it is necessary to resolve the effects of ligand-receptor complex dimension and determine the optimal aspect ratio of spherocylindrical bioparticles in the process of endocytosis. Accordingly, we proposed a continuum elastic model, of which the results indicate that the aspect ratio depends on the ligand-receptor complex dimension and the radius of the spherocylindrical bioparticle. This model provides a phase diagram of the aspect ratio of endocytosed spherocylindrical bioparticles, the larger aspect ratio of which appears in the phase diagram with increasing ligand density, and highlights the bioparticle design.
