ArticleNature nanotechnology2020
Targeted crystallization of mixed-charge nanoparticles in lysosomes induces selective death of cancer cells.
Article in Nature nanotechnology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 75 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
75 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 270 citations in OpenAlex.
- Antioxidant and anticancer properties of citrus-mediated nanoformulations revealed by meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2025Pooled it
- Controlling Macrophage Uptake of Gold Nanoparticles through the Design of an Effective Heterogeneous Coating.ACS applied materials & interfaces · 2026Article
- Exploiting eNOS activation to achieve tumor vascular normalizationActa pharmaceutica Sinica. B · 2026Article
- Dynamic magneto-mechanical force in lysosomes induces durable macrophage repolarization for antitumor immunity.Cell research · 2026Article
- Review
- Organelles and cancer cell pyroptosis: overview and perspectives.Cell death & disease · 2025Review
- Pyroptosis in cancer therapy: a double-edged sword for immune activation and tumor progression.Molecular cancer · 2025Review
- A small-molecule anti-cancer drug for long-acting lysosomal damage.Acta pharmaceutica Sinica. B · 2025Article
- Kinetically Arrested SERS-Active Aggregates for Biosensing.Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2025Article
- Organelle-oriented nanomedicines in tumor therapy: Targeting, escaping, or collaborating?Bioactive materials · 2025Review
- A metal-drug self-delivery nanomedicine alleviates tumor immunosuppression to potentiate synergistic chemo/chemodynamic therapy against hepatocellular carcinoma.Fundamental research · 2025Article
- A ferritin-targeted biohybrid triggering ferroptosis immunotherapy via activating endogenous iron and replenishing exogenous iron simultaneously.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Biosynthesized Calcium Peroxide Nanoparticles as a Multifunctional Platform for Liver Cancer Therapy.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Genetic modulation of rare earth nanoparticle biotransformation shapes biological outcomes.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Tandem-controlled lysosomal assembly of nanofibres induces pyroptosis for cancer immunotherapy.Nature nanotechnology · 2025Article
- Self-Sustained Biophotocatalytic Nano-Organelle Reactors with Programmable DNA Switches for Combating Tumor Metastasis.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2025Article
- Intravenous delivery of STING agonists using acid-sensitive polycationic polymer-modified lipid nanoparticles for enhanced tumor immunotherapy.Acta pharmaceutica Sinica. B · 2025Article
- A Synergistic Dual-Atom Sites Nanozyme Augments Immunogenic Cell Death for Efficient Immunotherapy.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Organelle-Targeting Nanoparticles.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Review
- In Situ Transformable Nanoparticle Effectively Suppresses Bladder Cancer by Damaging Mitochondria and Blocking Mitochondrial Autophagy Flux.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
15 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Lysosomes have become an important target for anticancer therapeutics because lysosomal cell death bypasses the classical caspase-dependent apoptosis pathway, enabling the targeting of apoptosis- and drug-resistant cancers. However, only a few small molecules-mostly repurposed drugs-have been tested so far, and these typically exhibit low cancer selectivity, making them suitable only for combination therapies. Here, we show that mixed-charge nanoparticles covered with certain ratios of positively and negatively charged ligands can selectively target lysosomes in cancerous cells while exhibiting only marginal cytotoxicity towards normal cells. This selectivity results from distinct pH-dependent aggregation events, starting from the formation of small, endocytosis-prone clusters at cell surfaces and ending with the formation of large and well-ordered nanoparticle assemblies and crystals inside cancer lysosomes. These assemblies cannot be cleared by exocytosis and cause lysosome swelling, which gradually disrupts the integrity of lysosomal membranes, ultimately impairing lysosomal functions and triggering cell death.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.