Comas, LauraPolo Tobajas, EsterDomingo, M. PilarHernández, YulánArias, MaykelEsteban, PatriciaMartínez-Lostao, LuisPardo, JuliánMartínez de la Fuente, JesúsGálvez, Eva M.2019-09-112019-09-112019Comas, L.; Polo, E.; Domingo, M.P.; Hernández, Y.; Arias, M.; Esteban, P.; Martínez-Lostao, L.; Pardo, J.; Martínez de la Fuente, J.; Gálvez, E.M. Intracellular Delivery of Biologically-Active Fungal Metabolite Gliotoxin Using Magnetic Nanoparticles. Materials 2019, 12, 10921996-1944http://hdl.handle.net/10347/19757Gliotoxin (GT), a secondary metabolite produced by Aspergillus molds, has been proposed as a potential anti-tumor agent. Here we have developed a nanoparticle approach to enhance delivery of GT in tumor cells and establish a basis for its potential use as therapeutical drug. GT bound to magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) retained a high anti-tumor activity, correlating with efficient intracellular delivery, which was increased in the presence of glucose. Our results show that the attachment of GT to MNPs by covalent bonding enhances intracellular GT delivery without affecting its biological activity. This finding represents the first step to use this potent anti-tumor agent in the treatment of cancereng© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)Atribución 4.0 Internacionalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Magnetic nanoparticlesGliotoxinTherapeuticDrug deliveryCancer cellsjournal article10.3390/ma12071092open access