Biomechanical targeting as a novel approach for drug delivery in cancer

Intelligent design of nanoparticles is a central challenge in precision nanomedicine. While molecular targeting approaches are widely used for designing active targeted drug delivery systems, the effect of biomechanical properties on tissue specificity and targeting is less studied. We show that cell deformability as well as nanoparticle stiffness may have a major role in the reciprocal interaction that affect particle uptake and cell specificity. In many cancers it was found that cancer cells are more deformability compared to normal cells in their surrounding and that this deformability is associated with elevated degree of cell malignancy. In our study, using experimental and theoretical approaches we demonstrated that the unique biomechanics of cancer cells can be utilized for cell targeting with nano and micro particles. A wide range of biological assays including and 3D printed organ on chip technologies were used to provide mechanistic insights related to the Triangular Correlation between cancer cell aggressiveness, biomechanics and particle uptake. Furthermore, novel multifunctional nanomaterials designed to remotely actuate drug delivery systems will be presented.