Nucleus-Targeted Drug Delivery: Theoretical Optimization of Nanoparticles Decoration for Enhanced Intracellular Active Transport

A rational design for a nanoparticle is suggested, which will maximize its arrival efficiency from the plasma membrane to the nuclear surrounding. The design is based on grafting the particle surface with polymer spacers, each ending with a motor protein associating molecule, for example, nuclear localization signal peptide. It is theoretically shown that the spacer polymer molecular weight can be adjusted to significantly increase the effective particle processivity time. This should lead to appreciable enhancement of active transport of the nanocarrier, and consequently drug delivery, to the nucleus.