Cholesterol Hinders the Passive Uptake of Amphiphilic Nanoparticles into Fluid Lipid Membranes

Plasma membranes represent pharmacokinetic barriers for the passive transport of site-specific drugs within cells. When engineered nanoparticles (NPs) are considered as transmembrane drug carriers, the plasma membrane composition can affect passive NP internalization in many ways. Among these, cholesterol-regulated membrane fluidity is probably one of the most biologically relevant. Herein, we consider small (2-5 nm in core diameter) amphiphilic gold NPs capable of spontaneously and nondisruptively entering the lipid bilayer of plasma membranes. We study their incorporation into model 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine membranes with increasing cholesterol content. We combine dissipative quartz crystal microbalance experiments, atomic force microscopy, and molecular dynamics simulations to show that membrane cholesterol, at biologically relevant concentrations, hinders the molecular mechanism for passive NP penetration within fluid bilayers, resulting in a dramatic reduction in the amount of NP incorporated.