Artificial nanomaterials have become the focus of intense research in the field nanomedicine because they possess novel functionalities, stabilities and tunability. In particular, nanoparticles (NPs) of different sizes, shapes, materials, and surface chemistry are widely studied as functional components for applications such as medical imaging, theragnostic, targeted therapy, drug delivery and biosensing. Considering its crucial importance to the design and use of nanomaterials in many biomedical applications where nanotoxicity should be minimized, there is an urgent need for a better fundamental understanding of the interactions between functional NPs and model cell membranes. In recent years, nano-ions (charged nanoparticles) have attracted increasing interest due to their fascinating properties. Nano-ions such as polyoxometalates (POMs), boron clusters and hydrophobic ions, are nanometric well-defined molecular metal clusters with variety of structures – of different size, shape, and charge, which depend on the atomic composition. This enables precise control of their biological activity at the cell membrane interface. Nano-ions have promising antitumor, anti-infectious and anti-Alzheimer’s activities. Despite their promising membrane-targeting ability, direct evidence for the proposed mechanism based on the formation and desorption of POM-lipid assemblies is lacking. Their interactions with cell membranes, relevant to their cytotoxicity and drug delivery applications, remain poorly understood. In particular, little is known how the presence of nano-ions might influence the formation, reorganization and evolution of the structure and morphology of SLBs. The overall objective of this project was to understand the effect of NPs on membrane fusion.
