Facile Synthesis of Uniform Virus-like Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles for Enhanced Cellular Internalization

Abstract

The low-efficiency cellular uptake property of current nanoparticles greatly restricts their application in the biomedical field. Herein, we demonstrate that novel virus-like mesoporous silica nanoparticles can easily be synthesized, showing greatly superior cellular uptake property. The unique virus-like mesoporous silica nanoparticles with a spiky tubular rough surface have been successfully synthesized via a novel single-micelle epitaxial growth approach in a low-concentration-surfactant oil/water biphase system. The virus-like nanoparticles’ rough surface morphology results mainly from the mesoporous silica nanotubes spontaneously grown via an epitaxial growth process. The obtained nanoparticles show uniform particle size and excellent monodispersity. The structural parameters of the nanoparticles can be well tuned with controllable core diameter (∼60–160 nm), tubular length (∼6–70 nm), and outer diameter (∼6–10 nm). Thanks to the biomimetic morphology, the virus-like nanoparticles show greatly superior cellular uptake property (invading living cells in large quantities within few minutes, <5 min), unique internalization pathways, and extended blood circulation duration (t1/2 = 2.16 h), which is much longer than that of conventional mesoporous silica nanoparticles (0.45 h). Furthermore, our epitaxial growth strategy can be applied to fabricate various virus-like mesoporous core–shell structures, paving the way toward designed synthesis of virus-like nanocomposites for biomedicine applications.

Uniform Virus‐Like Co–N–Cs Electrocatalyst Derived from Prussian Blue Analog for Stretchable Fiber‐Shaped Zn–Air Batteries

“…The prepared Co–N–Cs have a Co–N–C core and separated peripheral Co–N–C nanotubes (Co–N–CNTs) perpendicular to the core surface. This is the first time that direct‐carbonization of PBA has been reported to lead to a virus‐like structure with a peripheral CNT shell; furthermore, while the virus‐like structures have been found to be favorable for biomedical applications, to date, their use in electrochemical applications has not been reported. In this work, the virus‐like Co–N–Cs were demonstrated to exhibit a promising ORR performance comparable to commercial Pt–C, and considerable OER performance that is only slightly lower than that of IrO 2 .…”

Catalytic and Light‐Driven ZnO/Pt Janus Nano/Micromotors: Switching of Motion Mechanism via Interface Roughness and Defect Tailoring at the Nanoscale

“…There are a few papers that show the influence of interface nanostructure on the motion of the catalytic nano/micromotors . The mesoporous structure together with the interfaces has even been lesser addressed for the case of light‐driven micromotors, which should play the dominant role on the self‐propulsion .…”

A NanoFlare‐Based Strategy for In Situ Tumor Margin Demarcation and Neoadjuvant Gene/Photothermal Therapy

“…Yet in the presence of high concentration of tumor intracellular GSH, activated fluorescence signal resulted from the break of disulfide bridge can be outputted, hence transforming and amplifying the pathophysiological redox signals. Furthermore, based on previous studies on NanoFlare as well as the interaction of anisotropic nanomaterials with cellular interfaces, the AuNS‐ASON with anisotropic ASON‐spike nanostructure would possess universal but enhanced cellular internalization and uptake compared to the NanoFlare based on spherical gold nanoparticles. Hence, by capitalizing on its unique characteristics of excellent tumor cellular uptake and redox‐activated fluorescence, our AuNS‐ASON holds great promise for precise margin demarcation of different tumors in situ with high sensitivity and specificity.…”