Using nanoparticle-mediated photoporation to enable intracellular molecular delivery

Intracellular drug delivery is critical for cellular therapies and diagnostics that have molecular targets inside cells. Kumar et al. investigate nanoparticle-mediated photoporation as a potential platform technology that is independent of the cell type and enables successful intracellular molecular delivery without compromising cell viability.

The researchers were primarily focused on providing a correlation between transient energy transfer parameters associated with the mechanisms of intracellular delivery and final cellular responses, rather than relying on laser operating condition. They sought to gain insight into the mechanisms of energy transduction that lead to cellular bioeffects and enable prediction of bioeffects as a function of energy transduction parameters.

The researchers tested a series of hypotheses about the nature of energy transfer from laser to nanoparticles, which heats the nanoparticles, from nanoparticles to surrounding media, which causes vapor bubble formation, and from bubbles to cells, which porates the cell membrane.

“It surprised us that the dominant parameter that correlated with bioeffects was the temperature of the nanoparticle, while the number of bubbles and average bubble radius were less important,” said author Simple Kumar. “This suggests that even when there are enough bubbles that are sufficiently close to cells, the important point is those nanoparticles are hot enough to cause cell membrane poration and intracellular delivery.”

The mechanisms involved in nanoparticle-mediated photoporation could pave the way for intracellular delivery of bioactive molecules for research and medicine. In addition to cellular therapies and diagnostics, the platform technology can also be used for research into intracellular molecular pathways and localized delivery to targeted cells.

Source: “Relationship between bio-effects and energy transduction during nanoparticle-mediated photoporation,” by Simple Kumar, Cameron Chong, Travis Voorhees, Naresh N. Thadhani, and Mark R. Prausnitz, Journal of Applied Physics (2020). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0021834 . This paper is part of the Photothermics Collection, learn more here: https://aip.scitation.org/toc/jap/collection/10.1063/jap.2020.PHOTOTHERMICS2020.issue-1