Discussion

The application of nanoparticles (NPs) within medicine is of great interest; their innate physicochemical characteristics provide the potential to enhance current technology, diagnostics and therapeutics. The freedom to preferentially functionalise surface properties of NPs paves the way to develop user defined nanoscale vectors for specific purpose. However, despite success in these areas, application of NP technology or quantification of NP dose at the individual cellular-level is still at an infant stage due to the myriad of competing biophysical processes present.
In this work, we provide a means to estimate intra-cellular NP dose in human osteosarcoma cells. By experimental assessment of NP dose in >500 randomly chosen NP agglomerates in media by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), coupled with an appropriate stochastic simulation. The latter incorporates both NP transport and previously reported random NP uptake; we develop a methodology that is capable of accurate prediction NP dose within endosome compartments within the cell. The simple methodology informs on and encapsulates dose evolution and corroborates remarkably well with high-end microscopy studies.