Morphological and constituent viral-mimicking self-assembled nanoparticles promote cellular uptake and improve cancer therapeutic efficiency in vivo

The delivery of nanomaterials or therapeutics into cells takes a decisive role for their applications in nanomedicine. Nature's creations such as viruses provide valued inspiration for design of nano-architectures in cellular delivery. We report herein the fabrication of biodegradable and biocompatible nanoparticles (NPs) with viral-mimicking morphology and constituents as a nanoplatform, which has rarely been reported to the best of our knowledge, for promoting cellular uptake and achieving high therapeutic efficiency in vivo. The chitosan-porphyrin-based NPs were endowed with a viral-imitating morphology through a novel pH-responsive decomposition-induced self-assembly method. By successive conjugation of Tat peptides and modification of lipids, morphological and constituent viral-mimicking NPs were obtained. Compared with the counterpart of non-viral-mimicking NPs, the viral-mimicking NPs showed prominent superiority in enhancing cell internalization (10 times higher). Loading of near-infrared photosensitizer– indocyanine green into these NPs demonstrated the striking capability of the viral-mimicking nanoparticles in therapeautic delivery and photothermal anti-tumor effect in vitro and in vivo. This concept and strategy provides an enlightening methodology on the design and fabrication of therapeutic delivery systems, which is significant for nanobiotechnology. The novel morphological-constituent viral-mimicking self-assembled NPs have prominent superiority in enhancing cell internalization. The advantage of this structure in applications is demonstrated by loading with a near-infrared photosensitizer – indocyanine green (ICG), which shows prominent photothermal (PTT) anti-tumor efficiency in vivo. [Display omitted]