Dalmau-Mena, InmaculadaPino González de la Higuera, Pablo Alfonso delPelaz García, BeatrizCuesta-Geijo, Miguel ÁngelGalindo, InmaculadaMoros, MaríaMartínez de la Fuente, JesúsAlonso, Covadonga2019-09-112019-09-112018Dalmau-Mena, I., del Pino, P., Pelaz, B., Cuesta-Geijo, M., Galindo, I., & Moros, M. et al. (2018). Nanoparticles engineered to bind cellular motors for efficient delivery. Journal Of Nanobiotechnology, 16(1). doi: 10.1186/s12951-018-0354-11477-3155http://hdl.handle.net/10347/19761Background Dynein is a cytoskeletal molecular motor protein that transports cellular cargoes along microtubules. Biomimetic synthetic peptides designed to bind dynein have been shown to acquire dynamic properties such as cell accumulation and active intra- and inter-cellular motion through cell-to-cell contacts and projections to distant cells. On the basis of these properties dynein-binding peptides could be used to functionalize nanoparticles for drug delivery applications. Results Here, we show that gold nanoparticles modified with dynein-binding delivery sequences become mobile, powered by molecular motor proteins. Modified nanoparticles showed dynamic properties, such as travelling the cytosol, crossing intracellular barriers and shuttling the nuclear membrane. Furthermore, nanoparticles were transported from one cell to another through cell-to-cell contacts and quickly spread to distant cells through cell projections. Conclusions The capacity of these motor-bound nanoparticles to spread to many cells and increasing cellular retention, thus avoiding losses and allowing lower dosage, could make them candidate carriers for drug deliveryeng© The Author(s) 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/ publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise statedAtribución 4.0 Internacionalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/NanoparticlesBiomimetic synthetic peptidesDrug deliveryMicrotubule motorsDyneinjournal article10.1186/s12951-018-0354-1open access