Computational analysis of nanoparticle adhesion to endothelium: effects of kinetic rate constants and wall shear rates

Various nanoparticles have been developed as imaging probes and drug carriers, and their selectivity in binding to target cells determines the efficacy of these functionalized nanoparticles. Since target cells in different arterial segments experience different hemodynamic environments, we study the effects of wall shear rate waveforms on particle binding. We also explore the effects of the kinetic rate constant, which is determined by particle design parameters, on particle binding. A transport and reaction model is used to evaluate nanoparticle binding to the substrate in a laminar flow chamber. Flow and particle concentration fields are solved by using a computational fluid dynamics. The particle binding rate increases as the mean value of wall shear increases, and the amplitudes of sinusoidal shear waveform do not affect the bound particle density profiles significantly. Particle binding rates increase with the rate constant of attachment (k _A), and are more sensitively affected by low k _A values and less by k _A values higher than 1 × 10⁻⁶ m s⁻¹. Since binding selectivity is affected by k _A and the wall shear rate, the results of this study can be used for designing functionalized nanoparticles targeting for the specific cells that experience a specific shear rate.