The delivery of nanomaterials or therapeutics into cells takes a decisive role for their applications in nanomedicine. Nature's creations such as viruses provide valued inspiration for design of nano-architectures in cellular delivery. We report herein the fabrication of biodegradable and biocompatible nanoparticles (NPs) with viral-mimicking morphology and constituents as a nanoplatform, which has rarely been reported to the best of our knowledge, for promoting cellular uptake and achieving high therapeutic efficiency in vivo. The chitosan-porphyrin-based NPs were endowed with a viral-imitating morphology through a novel pH-responsive decomposition-induced self-assembly method. By successive conjugation of Tat peptides and modification of lipids, morphological and constituent viral-mimicking NPs were obtained. Compared with the counterpart of non-viral-mimicking NPs, the viral-mimicking NPs showed prominent superiority in enhancing cell internalization (10 times higher). Loading of near-infrared photosensitizer– indocyanine green into these NPs demonstrated the striking capability of the viral-mimicking nanoparticles in therapeautic delivery and photothermal anti-tumor effect in vitro and in vivo. This concept and strategy provides an enlightening methodology on the design and fabrication of therapeutic delivery systems, which is significant for nanobiotechnology.

纳米材料或治疗剂向细胞内的递送对于它们在纳米医学中的应用起决定性作用。诸如病毒之类的自然创造物为细胞递送中的纳米架构设计提供了宝贵的灵感。我们在此报告了具有可模仿病毒的形态和成分作为纳米平台的可生物降解和生物相容性纳米颗粒（NPs）的制备，据我们所知，这很少被报道用于促进细胞摄取并在体内达到较高的治疗效率。通过一种新型的pH响应分解诱导自组装方法，使基于壳聚糖-卟啉的NP具有病毒模仿的形态。通过连续的Tat肽缀合和脂质的修饰，获得了形态和组成类似于病毒的NP。与非模仿病毒的NP相比，模仿病毒的NP在增强细胞内在化方面显示出显着的优势（高10倍）。近红外线光敏剂吲哚花青绿到这些NP的装载证明therapeautic递送和光热抗肿瘤作用的病毒模仿纳米颗粒的惊人能力在体外和体内。这一概念和策略为治疗传递系统的设计和制造提供了启发性的方法学，对纳米生物技术具有重要意义。