Fig. 2: Synthesis and ex vivo characterization of EMVs@SS-Toy.

a Stepwise schematic of EMVs@SS-Toy production. b TEM images of SS-Toy, OMVs, DEX, OMVs@SS-Toy and EMVs@SS-Toy. c Particle size distribution profiles for SS-Toy, OMVs, DEX, OMVs@SS-Toy and EMVs@SS-Toy. d CLSM showcasing the co-localization of SS-MSN^FITC (green) with Dil (red) in OMVs@SS-Toy, and with APC-CD63 (red) in EMVs@SS-Toy. e Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) mapping displaying the composition of EMVs@SS-Toy with white arrow indicating the zoomed-in area, red represents carbon (C), blue represents oxygen (O), orange represents sulfur (S), purple represents silicon (Si), green represents nitrogen (N), and yellow represents phosphorus (P). f Differential protein expression in DCs following different treatments. The cutoff is defined by requiring the fold change (FC) to be greater than 1.5, with adjusted P < 0.05 (Benjamini-Hochberg-adjusted two-sided Welch’s t test). g Heatmaps representing gene expression involved in immune activation and antigen presentation in DCs following different treatments (n = 3 independent experiments). h Western blot probing for exosomal markers TSG101, CD9, and CD81 proteins. i SDS-PAGE analysis revealing the protein profiles of OMVs, OMVs@SS-Toy, DEX, and EMVs@SS-Toy. j CLSM images of cell uptake of SS-Toy and OMVs@SS-Toy in DCs, highlighting Nuclei (Hoechst 33342, blue) and SS-MSN (FITC, green). k Flow cytometric quantification of fluorescent uptake in DCs treated with Si-Toy, SS-Toy, OMVs@Si-Toy, and OMVs@SS-Toy over time (n = 3 independent experiments). ^**P  <  0.01, ^***P  <  0.001 and ^****P  < 0.0001 by two-tailed Student’s t-test. l Kinetics of Si-Toy and SS-Toy release in a 10 mM H₂O₂ environment at pH 7.4 (n = 3 independent experiments). ^**P  <  0.01 by two-tailed Student’s t-test. Data are presented as mean ± SD. ^*P < 0.05, ^**P < 0.01, ^***P < 0.001 and ^****P < 0.0001. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.