Fig. 4: Enhanced nano-cellular interaction of HUNPs with tunable hydrophobicity of core composition.

a The relative-binding amount of HUNPs to 4T1 cell membrane (relative to iP10) (n = 4 independent experiments, one-way ANOVA post-Brown-Forsythe test, followed by Tukey’s multiple comparisons test). b Correlation between the relative binding amount of HUNPs and the molar percentage of BMA in micelle core (n = 4 independent experiments). R value: derived using a linear regression model. Error band in grey: 95% confidence intervals of the fitted line. Centre of the error band: the predicted values from the linear regression model. P value: slope significantly non-zero. c The uptake of HUNPs by 4T1 tumour cells. The four peaks from left to right are as follows: blue for iP10, purple for iP9B1, green for iP7B3, and red for iP5B5. d The relative uptake of HUNPs by 4T1 cells (relative to iP10) (n = 3 independent experiments, one-way ANOVA post Brown-Forsythe test, followed by Tukey’s multiple comparisons test). e Correlation between the relative in vitro uptake and the relative in vivo tumour internalization as shown in Fig. 3d. R value: derived using a linear regression model. Error band: 95% confidence intervals of the fitted line. The centre: predicted values from the linear regression model. P value: slope significantly non-zero. f Intracellular activation of iP5B5-Cy5 or iP10-Cy5 in 4T1 tumour cells. Scale bar = 10 μm. g Quantification results of nanoparticle activation in lysosomes of tumour cells. (n = 20 independent cells per group, two-sided unpaired t test). The dashed line in the middle of the violin plots: the median; upper and lower dashed lines: the first and third quartiles. The width of the violin plot: density of the data at different values. F.I.: fluorescence intensity. h The relative cellular uptake of HUNPs in different tumour cell lines and macrophage cell lines. The cell uptake for each group was normalized to that of iP10 (n = 3 independent experiments). Independent experiments mentioned above are derived from biologically different cell samples. All measurements are presented as mean ± s.d. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.