Biomineralized nanosilica-based organelles endow living yeast cells with non-inherent biological functions

Abstract

We propose a biomimetic strategy to construct engineered yeast cells (EYCs) by building intracellular silica nanoscaffolds as biomimetic organelles. These nanosilica-based organelles can coordinate with loaded drug and yeast as a shell could prevent drug leakage. In vivo results show that EYCs serve as a dually responsive drug delivery system, targeted with extracellular caps (folate) and triggered by intracellular SiO₂ at the low pH of cancer tissue.