Figure 2.

Snapshots of the simulations showing the entry of the plastic particle with a corona of 150 cholesterol molecules into the DOPC bilayer, a model blood–brain barrier (orange: hydrophobic moieties of the DOPC molecules; green: hydrophilic groups of the DOPC; dark grey: polystyrene; light grey: cholesterol). The nanoparticle approaches the membrane in the beginning of the simulation (above), and then spontaneously diffuses into its hydrophobic core, followed by the dissociation of its corona, and the disentanglement of the polymer chains by the end of the 1 μs run (below).