Vegetable Oil–Based Pickering Nanoemulsions As Carriers for Cytosolic Drug Delivery

Pickering emulsions are attractive carriers and platforms in the cosmetic, food, and biomedical industries. However, their application as delivery carriers is restricted due to their larger size and premature cargo release. Here, we show that Pickering nanoemulsion of 200–300 nm size can be used as drug delivery carriers by a nonendocytic approach via the fusion of oil droplets with cell membranes. We found that this unique delivery feature offers enhanced cytosolic delivery of camptothecin along with predominant cell nucleus targeting that leads to 10 times enhanced therapeutic performance. The driving forces for this nonendocytic delivery are the large size of Pickering nanoemulsions that restricts their endocytic uptake, unique surface chemistry of stabilizer nanoparticles that induces attachment with the cell membrane, and noncompact surface of nanoemulsions that allows fusion between oil droplets and the membrane followed by delivery of the drug from the droplet interior into the cytosol. The presented approach can be adapted for drug delivery to cells via nonendocytic approach with enhanced therapeutic performance.