Hybrid red blood cell membrane coated porous silicon nanoparticles functionalized with cancer antigen induce depletion of T cells

A PEG-assisted membrane coating to prepare biomimetic mesoporous silicon for PET/CT imaging of triple-negative breast cancer

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) diagnosis remains challenging without expressing critical receptors. Cancer cell membrane (CCm) coating has been extensively studied for targeted cancer diagnostics due to attractive features such as good biocompatibility and homotypic tumor-targeting. However, the present study found that widely used CCm coating approaches, such as extrusion, were not applicable for functionalizing irregularly shaped nanoparticles (NPs), such as porous silicon (PSi). To tackle this challenge, we proposed a novel approach that employs polyethylene glycol (PEG)-assisted membrane coating, wherein PEG and CCm are respectively functionalized on PSi NPs through chemical conjugation and physical absorption. Meanwhile, the PSi NPs were grafted with the bisphosphonate (BP) molecules for radiolabeling. Thanks to the good chelating ability of BP and homotypic tumor targeting of cancer CCm coating, a novel PSi-based contrast agent (CCm-PEG-89Zr-BP-PSi) was developed for targeted positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) imaging of TNBC. The novel imaging agent showed good radiochemical purity (∼99 %) and stability (∼95 % in PBS and ∼99 % in cell medium after 48 h). Furthermore, the CCm-PEG-89Zr-BP-PSi NPs had efficient homotypic targeting ability in vitro and in vivo for TNBC. These findings demonstrate a versatile biomimetic coating method to prepare novel NPs for tumor-targeted diagnosis.

Dual-Targeting Biomimetic Semiconducting Polymer Nanocomposites for Amplified Theranostics of Bone Metastasis

Bone metastasis is a type of metastatic tumors that involves the spreads of malignant tumor cells into skeleton, and its diagnosis and treatment remain a big challenge due to the unique tumor microenvironment. We herein develop osteoclast and tumor cell dual-targeting biomimetic semiconducting polymer nanocomposites (SPFeNOC ) for amplified theranostics of bone metastasis. SPFeNOC contain semiconducting polymer and iron oxide (Fe3 O4 ) nanoparticles inside core and surface camouflaged hybrid membrane of cancer cells and osteoclasts. The hybrid membrane camouflage enables their targeting to both metastatic tumor cells and osteoclasts in bone metastasis through homologous targeting mechanism, thus achieving an enhanced nanoparticle accumulation in tumors. The semiconducting polymer mediates near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence imaging and sonodynamic therapy (SDT), and Fe3 O4 nanoparticles are used for magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and chemodynamic therapy (CDT). Because both cancer cells and osteoclasts are killed synchronously via the combinational action of SDT and CDT, the vicious cycle in bone metastasis is broken to realize high antitumor efficacy. Therefore, 4T1 breast cancer-based bone metastasis can be effectively detected and cured by using SPFeNOC as dual-targeting theranostic nanoagents. This study provides an unusual biomimetic nanoplatform that simultaneously targets osteoclasts and cancer cells for amplified theranostics of bone metastasis.

Molecular Mechanism Exploration of Autologous Blood Transfusion with RBC Surface Membrane Protein pMHC/aCD28 Combined with CD8+T Cells to Promote the Proliferation of CD8+T Cells to Inhibit the Malignant Transformation of Liver Cancer

Autologous blood transfusion is an important blood protection measure. Red blood cells have a certain degree of immunogenicity and their surface membrane proteins CD28 and MHC can participate in the immune response and interact with CD8+ T cells. We build a cell model with a transwell system. The binding characteristics of RBCs and CD8+ T cells were observed with a fluorescent confocal microscope. The content of the inflammatory factor TNF-α and IFN-γ produced was analyzed by ELISA. The proliferation characteristics of CD8+ T cells were analyzed by CFSE staining, and the content of CD3+CD8+ T cells was analyzed by flow cytometry. Cell migration and invasion experiments were used to analyze the malignant metastasis ability of liver cancer cells. The expression of vimentin, E-cadherin, and β-catenin was analyzed by Western blot. We establish a liver cancer model in rats and group them for autologous blood transfusion. The content of CD3+CD8+T cells in the blood of each group of rats was analyzed by flow cytometry. Western blot was used to analyze the expression of vimentin, E-cadherin, and β-catenin in the liver tissues of rats in each group. The red blood cells in the autologous reinfusion blood and CD8+ T cells have an obvious combination. The degree of combination of the two is related to the expression of CD28 and MHC. If CD28 and MHC are expressed at the same time, the combination of the two cells will be high, the proliferation of CD8+ T cells will increase, and the expression of inflammatory factors will also increase, while the expression of the three proteins that are positively correlated with the activity of cancer cells will decrease. If only one of CD28 and MHC is normally expressed, the result is contrary to the situation where both membrane proteins are normally expressed. Our project has proved that autologous infusion of red blood cell surface membrane proteins CD28 and MHC combined with CD8+ T cells can promote the proliferation of CD8+ T cells to inhibit the malignant transformation of liver cancer.

Smart active-targeting of lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles for therapeutic applications: Recent advances and challenges

The advances in producing multifunctional lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles (LPHNs) by combining the biomimetic behavior of liposomes and architectural advantages of polymers have provided great opportunities for selective and efficient therapeutics delivery. The constructed LPHNs exhibit different therapeutic efficacies for special uses based on characteristics of different excipients. However, the high mechanical/structural stability of hybrid nano-systems could be viewed as both a negative property and a positive feature, where the concomitant release of drug molecules in a controllable manner is required. In addition, difficulties in scaling up the LPHNs production, due to involvement of several criteria, limit their application for biomedical fields, especially in monitoring, bioimaging, and drug delivery. To address these challenges bio-modifications have exhibited enormous potential to prepare reproducible LPHNs for site-specific therapeutics delivery, diagnostic and preventative applications. The ever-growing surface bio-functionality has provided continuous vitality to this biotechnology and has also posed desirable biosafety to nanoparticles (NPs). As a proof-of-concept, this manuscript provides a crucial review of coated lipid and polymer NPs displaying excellent surface functionality and architectural advantages. We also provide a description of structural classifications and production methodologies, as well as the biomedical possibilities and translational obstacles in the development of surface modified nanocarrier technology.