Transformable liquid-metal nanomedicine

TLDR

Inorganic nanocarriers have been widely explored for drug delivery, yet their clinical use is limited by toxicity and poor biodegradability. This study introduces a transformable liquid‑metal nanomedicine comprising a eutectic gallium‑indium core and a thiolated polymeric shell. The nanospheres are fabricated by sonication‑mediated assembly, allowing flexible bioconjugation. Doxorubicin‑loaded nanoparticles (~107 nm) fuse and degrade in mildly acidic endosomes to release drug, and hyaluronic‑acid functionalization enhances tumor‑targeted chemotherapeutic efficacy in xenograft mice, demonstrating a low‑toxicity, fusible, degradable theranostic platform.

Abstract

Abstract To date, numerous inorganic nanocarriers have been explored for drug delivery systems (DDSs). However, the clinical application of inorganic formulations has often been hindered by their toxicity and failure to biodegrade. We describe here a transformable liquid-metal nanomedicine, based on a core–shell nanosphere composed of a liquid-phase eutectic gallium-indium core and a thiolated polymeric shell. This formulation can be simply produced through a sonication-mediated method with bioconjugation flexibility. The resulting nanoparticles loaded with doxorubicin (Dox) have an average diameter of 107 nm and demonstrate the capability to fuse and subsequently degrade under a mildly acidic condition, which facilitates release of Dox in acidic endosomes after cellular internalization. Equipped with hyaluronic acid, a tumour-targeting ligand, this formulation displays enhanced chemotherapeutic inhibition towards the xenograft tumour-bearing mice. This liquid metal-based DDS with fusible and degradable behaviour under physiological conditions provides a new strategy for engineering theranostic agents with low toxicity.