Cell Membrane-Cloaked Nanotherapeutics for Targeted Drug Delivery

Abstract

Cell membrane cloaking technique is bioinspired nanotechnology that takes advantage of naturally derived design cues for surface modification of nanoparticles. Unlike modification with synthetic materials, cell membranes can replicate complex physicochemical properties and biomimetic functions of the parent cell source. This technique indeed has the potential to greatly augment existing nanotherapeutic platforms. Here, we provide a comprehensive overview of engineered cell membrane-based nanotherapeutics for targeted drug delivery and biomedical applications and discuss the challenges and opportunities of cell membrane cloaking techniques for clinical translation.

Development of Biotechnological Photosensitizers for Photodynamic Therapy: Cancer Research and Treatment—From Benchtop to Clinical Practice

“…The relative lack of understanding of the structural determinants of PSs and how they contribute to the phototoxic process makes it very difficult to develop better PSs through recombinant technology, which makes conventional PSs the most palpable options, but at the same time, they lack an effective screening method in order to elect the most suitable one for a particular application [ 12 ]. The associated techniques for performance improvement also represent a challenge, because if the chosen technique was the coating with cell membranes of the nanostructures carrying PSs for better targeting and bioavailability, problems such as the need for autologous cells for coating the nanostructured system, generating challenging demands for large-scale production and quality maintenance, besides becoming a personalized therapy—in other words, depending on the chosen technique to act synergistically with the PSs—other standardization challenges will arise [ 10 ].…”

“…The advantage of this procedure would be to take advantage of the different biological interfaces existing in the in vivo model, allowing more dynamics in the therapeutic approach, such as even more effective vectorization and immune escape. In this way, phototherapy can use these coated nanoparticles for better targeting to tumor cells, of which studies have pointed out some coating possibilities for targeted delivery [ 10 ].…”

Recent advances in biological membrane-based nanomaterials for cancer therapy

“…[208][209][210][211] To boost antitumor immunity, cell membranes are often engineered to target cancer cells or/and express stimulatory molecules for APCs and TAMs. [211][212][213][214] Engineered membrane-based nanomaterials not only inherit characteristics from parent cells, such as tumor-targeting ability and immune-stimulating capacity, but also show the functions of the specific protein, thereby accelerating tumor ablation.…”

Molecular Docking and Intracellular Translocation of Extracellular Vesicles for Efficient Drug Delivery

“…Eukaryotic cells take up molecules, such as extracellular proteins and lipoproteins, by a process called endocytosis, which includes clathrin-dependent or -independent endocytosis and micropinocytosis ( Figure 2 ) [ 259 , 260 , 261 , 262 , 263 , 264 , 265 , 266 , 267 , 268 , 269 ]. In clathrin-dependent endocytosis, when a ligand molecule binds to a receptor on the plasma membrane, a clathrin molecule binds to the cytosol via an AP2 adaptor protein, and a ball-shaped structure of the plasma membrane is formed [ 270 , 271 , 272 , 273 ].…”