Coarse-Grained Modeling of Interactions of Nanoparticles with Lipid Membranes

Research of the mechanisms of interactions between nanoparticles (NPs) and lipid bilayers (LBs), which constitute the foundation of cell membranes, is important in order to understand not only the specifics of NP drug delivery and imaging but also to understand the harmful effects related to NP toxicity. In this work, a coarse-grained molecular dynamics (CGMD) with implicit solvent is used to elucidate the stability of LBs supported on silica substrates decorated with hydrophilic and hydrophobic NPs. We reproduce the experimental observation that large NP (>22 nm) can be coated by stable LBs, while smaller NPs (