摘要

We have presented an analytic thermodynamic model to elucidate the mechanism of receptor-mediated endocytosis of nanoparticles (NPs) and provided a simple method to evaluate the optimal size of NPs by minimizing the kinetic diffusion time of the free receptors around the bound region toward the contact surface with NPs. It is found that the average density of receptors and chemical energy release upon the binding of a ligand-receptor pair determine the optimal size of NPs if the bending modulus of membranes and the cross-sectional area of the receptor are constants. The optimal radius of NPs can be calculated based on our model.