Fig. 7

NP delivery to tumor results primarily in TAM and CAF association and poor uptake by tumor cells. a–e Violin plots showing the relative percentage of NP⁺ TME-related cell types expressed as the % of NP⁺ cells as determined by ImageStreamX Mark II expressed relative to the total gated cell type. The data are shown for a Au₁₀ NPs, b Au₂₀ NPs, c Au₄₀ NPs, d Au₆₀ NPs, e Au₈₀ NPs. f UMAP plots for each and every tumor-associated parameter determined (as displayed in Fig. 4) as a function of UMAP coordinates. For analysis, all data points for each and every animal were combined for all groups (all differently sized NPs were analysed together). For every parameter, the values were first rescaled to a linear 0–1 scale with 0 being the lowest value for that parameter across all animals and 1 being the highest value for that parameter across all animals. Every single dot shown reveals a separate animal and indicates the specific value of the animal on its Y-axis, while for every animal, its position on the X-axis does not change and thus, values for all parameters can be directly compared. The dots were colour-coded based on the level of NP⁺ cancer cells (2^nd to the right of the bottom), where the 25% of animals with highest NP tumor levels were coloured red, the 25% of animals with lowest NP tumor levels were coloured blue and the remaining animals with medium NP levels were coloured green. To determine whether a particular parameter promotes or inhibits NP delivery efficacy, the red and blue groups should be separated on the Y-axis for the parameter