Enhanced Endosomal Escape by Light-Fueled Liquid-Metal Transformer.
Effective endosomal escape remains as the "holy grail" for endocytosis-based intracellular drug delivery. To date, most of the endosomal escape strategies rely on small molecules, cationic polymers, or pore-forming proteins, which are often limited by the systemic toxicity and lack of specificity. We describe here a light-fueled liquid-metal transformer for effective endosomal escape-facilitated cargo delivery via a chemical-mechanical process. The nanoscale transformer can be prepared by a simple approach of sonicating a low-toxicity liquid-metal. When coated with graphene quantum dots (GQDs), the resulting nanospheres demonstrate the ability to absorb and convert photoenergy to drive the simultaneous phase separation and morphological transformation of the inner liquid-metal core. The morphological transformation from nanospheres to hollow nanorods with a remarkable change of aspect ratio can physically disrupt the endosomal membrane to promote endosomal escape of payloads. This metal-based nanotransformer equipped with GQDs provides a new strategy for facilitating effective endosomal escape to achieve spatiotemporally controlled drug delivery with enhanced efficacy.
Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University , Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United States.|Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics and Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States.
Yue
Y
Lu
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University , Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United States.
Yiliang
Y
Lin
Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University , Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United States.|Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics and Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States.
Zhaowei
Z
Chen
Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University , Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United States.|Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics and Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States.
Quanyin
Q
Hu
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, North Carolina State University , Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United States.
Yang
Y
Liu
Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University , Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United States.|Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics and Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States.|Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Changchun 130022, China.
Shuangjiang
S
Yu
Department of Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science, North Carolina State University , Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United States.
Wei
W
Gao
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University , Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United States.
Michael D
MD
Dickey
Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University , Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United States.|Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics and Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States.|Department of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States.
Zhen
0000-0003-2947-4456
Z
Gu
Drug delivery; endosomal escape; liquid metal; morphological transformation; stimuli-responsive