Anomalous Vascular Dynamics of Nanoworms within Blood Flow

Nanomaterials have been widely used in the design of drug delivery platforms. This work computationally explores the vascular dynamics of nanoworms as drug carriers within blood flow by considering the effects of nanoworm length, stiffness, and local physiological conditions such as hematocrit. We found that nanoworms with length of 8 μm and moderate stiffness are the optimal choice as drug carriers for circulating within normal vascular network due to their lower near wall margination. Compared to those of spherical rigid particles, these nanoworms demonstrate significant demargination behaviors at hematocrit 20%, induced by the local hydrodynamic interactions. Specifically, the interactions between nanoworms and red blood cells create asymmetrical local flow fields, resulting in the demargination of nanoworms. In addition, the flexibility of nanoworms enables them to conform to the deformed shape of red blood cells under shear flow, leading to their high concentration within the core region of vessels. Therefore, the long blood circulation time of nanoworms can be partially attributed to their demargination behaviors and intertwinement with red blood cells. According to these simulation results, tuning the length and stiffness of nanoworms is the key to design drug carries with reduced near wall margination within normal vascular networks and extend their blood circulation time.