Summary

Self-propelled enzyme nanomotors are promising in the biomedical field as a drug delivery platform. These kind of nanomotors make use of enzymes to transform the environmental chemical energy into active motion, potentially improving their internalisation. However, it is well known that nanoparticles placed in biological fluids tend to suffer from the formation of protein corona, very often altering their pharmacological and toxicological profiles. In this view, we set the basis to study how the activity of nanomotors could affect the composition of protein corona. Specifically, we use stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) for the quantification and 2D mapping of urease enzymes bound to the surface of nanomotors, showing our nanomotors to be covered by 970 ± 150 (SD) urease units. Also, nanomotors are imaged with STORM after being exposed to BSA -as a model of physiological media-, revealing the formation of protein corona in presence and in absence of urea. Finally, urease activity of nanomotors is determined to be unaffected by the exposure to different concentrations of BSA, indicating that the formation of protein corona does not affect the diffusion of substrates and products.