Intracellular process activation by local warming: designing multifunctional nanoprobes with high intracellular mobility after internalization – IPALoWa

The activation of cellular processes with magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) is an emergent topic, but tools are still lacking to widen the potential applications. Indeed, if some intracellular targets could be of great interest, they are yet to be reachable due to the cellular internalization pathways of nanoparticles which confine them into small cellular compartments called endosomes. The IPALoWa project will rely on the synthesis of MNPs and their original functionalization with polymers or peptides preventing their endosomal entrapment into the cell, or their encapsulation into fusogenic liposomes, allowing un-hindered an diffusion of the MNPs in the cytoplasm, enabling them to reach their intracellular target: the thermo-sensitive protein HSP27. Submitted to an alternative magnetic field, MNPs will heat their immediate surroundings which will impact the HSP27, and have consequences on neuronal differentiation and neurite growth.