Arginine-Terminated, Chemically Designed Nanoparticle for Direct Cell Translocation

Direct cell translocation of nanomaterials is preferred over the endocytotic uptake for various subcellular targeting applications that can bypass the lysosomal trafficking/degradation. Although arginine-rich cell-penetrating peptides are routinely used for cell transfection of wider range materials from molecule to nanoparticle, the direct cell translocation of nanoparticle is not a routine approach, particularly because of the predominate endocytotic uptake. Here we report arginine-terminated, designed nanoparticle of 15–30 nm hydrodynamic size that enters into cell via direct translocation. We found that direct cell translocation of nanoparticle is very efficient without localization at any specific subcellular compartment for 12–24 h. This study shows that nanomaterial can be chemically designed for direct cell translocation and for cytosolic delivery without any biomembrane-coated endosome that can be employed for subcellular targeting applications.