Computational approaches and metrics required for formulating biologically realistic nanomaterial pharmacokinetic models

The field of nanomaterial pharmacokinetics is in its infancy, with major advances largely restricted by a lack of biologically relevant metrics, fundamental differences between particles and small molecules of organic chemicals and drugs relative to biological processes involved in disposition, a scarcity of sufficiently rich and characterized in vivo data and a lack of computational approaches to integrating nanomaterial properties to biological endpoints. A central concept that links nanomaterial properties to biological disposition, in addition to their colloidal properties, is the tendency to form a biocorona which modulates biological interactions including cellular uptake and biodistribution. Pharmacokinetic models must take this crucial process into consideration to accurately predict in vivo disposition, especially when extrapolating from laboratory animals to humans since allometric principles may not be applicable. The dynamics of corona formation, which modulates biological interactions including cellular uptake and biodistribution, is thereby a crucial process involved in the rate and extent of biodisposition. The challenge will be to develop a quantitative metric that characterizes a nanoparticle's surface adsorption forces that are important for predicting biocorona dynamics. These types of integrative quantitative approaches discussed in this paper for the dynamics of corona formation must be developed before realistic engineered nanomaterial risk assessment can be accomplished.