Department of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts, 710 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.
Org Biomol Chem. 2015 Feb 28;13(8):2474-2479. doi: 10.1039/c4ob02433h.
Prolonged retention of internalized nanoparticulate systems inside cells improves their efficacy in imaging, drug delivery, and theranostic applications. Especially, regulating exocytosis of the nanoparticles is a key factor in the fabrication of effective nanocarriers for chemotherapeutic treatments but orthogonal control of exocytosis in the cellular environment is a major challenge. Herein, we present the first example of regulating exocytosis of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), a model drug carrier, by using a simple host-guest supramolecular system. AuNPs featuring quaternary amine head groups were internalized into the cells through endocytosis. Subsequent in situ treatment of a complementary cucurbit[7]uril (CB[7]) to the amine head groups resulted in the AuNP-CB[7] complexation inside cells, rendering particle assembly. This complexation induced larger particle assemblies that remained sequestered in the endosomes, inhibiting exocytosis of the particles without any observed cytotoxicity.
细胞内内化的纳米颗粒系统的长时间保留可提高其在成像、药物输送和治疗应用中的功效。特别是，调节纳米颗粒的胞吐作用是制造用于化学治疗的有效纳米载体的关键因素，但在细胞环境中对胞吐作用进行正交控制是一个主要挑战。在此，我们首次展示了通过使用简单的主客体超分子系统来调节金纳米颗粒（AuNPs），一种模型药物载体的胞吐作用的实例。具有季铵头基的 AuNPs 通过内吞作用被内化到细胞中。随后，用互补的葫芦[7]脲（CB[7]）原位处理胺基头基，导致 AuNP-CB[7]在细胞内形成复合物，从而形成颗粒组装。这种复合物诱导更大的颗粒组装体，这些组装体仍然被隔离在内体中，抑制了颗粒的胞吐作用，而没有观察到任何细胞毒性。
