RT Journal Article T1 Engineering sub-cellular targeting strategies to enhance safe cytosolic silica particle dissolution in cells A1 Iturrioz Rodríguez, Nerea A1 Correa Duarte, Miguel Ángel A1 Valiente, Rafael A1 Fanarraga, Mónica L. K1 3303 Ingeniería y Tecnología Químicas K1 2302 Bioquímica K1 2307 Química Física AB Mesoporous silica particles (MSP) are major candidates for drug delivery systems due to their versatile, safe, and controllable nature. Understanding their intracellular route and biodegradation process is a challenge, especially when considering their use in neuronal repair. Here, we characterize the spatiotemporal intracellular destination and degradation pathways of MSP upon endocytosis by HeLa cells and NSC-34 motor neurons using confocal and electron microscopy imaging together with inductively-coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy analysis. We demonstrate how MSP are captured by receptor-mediated endocytosis and are temporarily stored in endo-lysosomes before being finally exocytosed. We also illustrate how particles are often re-endocytosed after undergoing surface erosion extracellularly. On the other hand, silica particles engineered to target the cytosol with a carbon nanotube coating, are safely dissolved intracellularly in a time scale of hours. These studies provide fundamental clues for programming the sub-cellular fate of MSP and reveal critical aspects to improve delivery strategies and to favor MSP safe elimination. We also demonstrate how the cytosol is significantly more corrosive than lysosomes for MSP and show how their biodegradation is fully biocompatible, thus, validating their use as nanocarriers for nervous system cells, including motor neurons. PB Pharmaceutics SN 19994923 YR 2020 FD 2020-05-28 LK http://hdl.handle.net/11093/2402 UL http://hdl.handle.net/11093/2402 LA eng NO Pharmaceutics, 12(6): 487 (2020) NO Instituto de Salud Carlos III | Ref. PI16/00496 DS Investigo RD 15-ene-2025