Mechanisms of transcellular transport of wheat germ agglutinin-functionalized polymeric nanoparticles in Caco-2 cells

Transcellular transport is essential for transmucosal and plasma-to-tissue drug delivery by nanoparticles, whereas its fundamental pathways have not been fully clarified. In this study, an in-depth investigation was conducted into the intracellular itinerary and the transcytosis pathway of wheat germ agglutinin-functionalized nanoparticles (WGA-NP) with various polymer architectures in the Caco-2 cell model. GFP-Rabs, Rab4, Rab5, Rab7, Rab11, GTPases served as key regulators of vesicular transport, and their mutants were transfected to Caco-2 cells respectively to determine the cellular itinerary of WGA-NP and the role of Rabs therein. Transcytosis inhibition experiments indicated that transcellular transport of WGA-NP (PEG3000-PLA40000 formulation) happened in a cytoskeleton-dependent manner and majorly by means of clathrin-mediated mechanism. Intracellular transport, especially the endolysosome pathway was found largely contribute to the transcytosis of WGA-NP. WGA-NP with shorter surface PEG length (2000) resulted in higher cellular association and more colocalization with the clathrin-mediated transport pathway, while that with longer surface PEG length (5000) avoided the clathrin-mediated transport pathway but achieved higher transcytosis after 4 h incubation. WGA-NP with PLGA as the core materials obtained elevated lysosome escape and enhanced transcytosis after 2 h incubation. These findings provided important evidence for the role of polymer architectures in modulating cellular transport of functionalized nanocarriers, and would be helpful in improving carrier design to enhance drug delivery.