Nanomaterial designing strategies related to cell lysosome and their biomedical applications: A review

Lysosomes, an important organelle of eukaryotic cells, are covered with the cell membrane and contain an array of degradative enzymes. The disrupt in lysosomal functions may lead to the development of severe diseases. In nanotechnology, nanomaterials working mechanism and its biomedical output are highly dependent on the lysosomes as it plays a crucial role in intracellular transport. Several nanomaterials specifically designed for lysosome-related actions are highly advantageous in trafficking and delivering the loaded imaging/therapeutic agents. But for other applications, especially gene-based therapeutic delivery into the sub-organelles such as mitochondria and nucleus, lysosomal related degradation could be an obstacle to achieve a maximal therapeutic index. In order to understand the relationship between lysosomes and designed nanomaterials for kind of desired application in biomedical research, complete knowledge of their various designing strategies, size dependent or ligand supportive cellular uptake mechanisms, trafficking, and localizations in eukaryotic cells is highly desired. In this review, we intended to discuss various nanomaterial types that have been applied in biomedical applications based on lysosomal internalization and escape from endo/lysosomes and explored their related advantages/disadvantages. Additionally, we also deliberated nanomaterials direct translocation mechanism, their autophagic accumulation and the underlying mechanism to induced autophagy. Finally, some challenges and critical issues in current research from clinical application perspective has also been addressed. Great understanding of these factors will help in understanding and facilitating the development of safe and effective lysosomal related nanomaterial-based imaging/therapeutic systems for future applications.