A novel Trojan-horse targeting strategy to reduce the non-specific uptake of nanocarriers by non-cancerous cells

A novel Trojan-horse targeting nanocarrier consisting of Fe3O4 nanocrystals, albumin nanospheres, folic acid and pH-sensitive polymers is constructed to reduce the non-specific uptake by non-cancerous cells. The folic acid is hidden in the spreading hydrophilic pH-sensitive polymers when circulating in blood stream (pH ∼ 7.4), but exposed to target cancer cells due to the shrinking of the polymers at acidic tumor sites (pH ∼ 5.5).241