The prickly nanodiamonds easily entered cells via endocytosis followed by unique intracellular translocation characteristics—quick endosomal escape followed by stable residence in cytoplasm. Endosomal membrane rupturing is identified as the major route of nanodiamonds’ escaping the vesicle confinement and to the cytoplasm. Little cytotoxicity is observed to associate with the nanodiamonds’ cytosolic release. Such features enable its application for gene delivery, which requires both effective cellular uptake and cytosolic release of the gene. Taking green fluorescent protein gene as an example, we demonstrate the successful cytosolic delivery and expression of such a gene using the prickly nanodiamonds as carrier.

The advancement in nanotechnology brings in unique opportunities to meet the challenges in immunology and vaccine development.

For efficient cancer vaccines, the antitumor function largely relies on cytotoxic T cells, whose activation can be effectively induced via antigen-encoding mRNA, making mRNA-based cancer vaccines an attractive approach for personalized cancer therapy.