Silica-coated liquid metal nanoparticles with different stiffness for cellular uptake-enhanced tumor photothermal therapy

Shuai Wang; Yonggang Lv

doi:10.1016/j.bioadv.2024.213872

Silica-coated liquid metal nanoparticles with different stiffness for cellular uptake-enhanced tumor photothermal therapy

Biomater Adv. 2024 Apr 29:161:213872. doi: 10.1016/j.bioadv.2024.213872. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Shuai Wang¹, Yonggang Lv²

Affiliations

¹ Mechanobiology and Regenerative Medicine Laboratory, Bioengineering College, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, PR China.
² State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan, 430200, PR China. Electronic address: yglv@wtu.edu.cn.

PMID: 38733802
DOI: 10.1016/j.bioadv.2024.213872

Abstract

Cells can sense the mechanical stimulation of nanoparticles (NPs) and then regulate the cellular uptake process. The enhanced endocytosis efficiency can improve the concentration of NPs in tumor cells significantly, which is the key prerequisite for achieving efficient biological performance. However, the preparation methods of NPs with flexible and tunable stiffness are relatively limited, and the impact of stiffness property on their interaction with tumor cells remains unclear. In this study, soft liquid metal (LM) core was coated with hard silica layer, the obtained core-shell NPs with a wide range of Young's modulus (130.5 ± 25.6 MPa - 1729.2 ± 146.7 MPa) were prepared by adjusting the amount of silica. It was found that the NPs with higher stiffness exhibited superior cellular uptake efficiency and lysosomal escape ability compared to the NPs with lower stiffness. The silica layer not only affected the stiffness, but also improved the photothermal stability of the LM NPs. Both in vitro and in vivo results demonstrated that the NPs with higher stiffness displayed significantly enhanced tumor hyperthermia capability. This work may provide a paradigm for the preparation of NPs with varying stiffness and offer insights into the role of the mechanical property of NPs in their delivery.

Keywords: Cellular uptake; Liquid metal; Photothermal; Stiffness; Tumor therapy.