Cellular Nanosponges for Biological Neutralization

Abstract

In viral infections, viral particles attach themselves to the host cell membrane for invasion, hijacking host cell machinery to replicate. [9,10] In order to counteract these threats, biological neutralization represents a general strategy that deploys therapeutic agents to bind with the harmful molecules or pathogens, block their bioactivity, and thus prevent them from causing the diseases. [11][12][13][14] Therapeutic platforms, such as antisera, monoclonal antibodies, and small-molecule inhibitors, have been widely used for neutralization. [15][16][17][18][19] Despite their pivotal roles in treating numerous diseases, these platforms sometimes show inadequate efficacy. The reason is attributable, in part, to their design of focusing on the causative molecules or pathogens, which leads to narrow-spectrum neutralization solutions. For example, some antidotes are highly effective in treating poisoning, but most deadly toxicants do not have specific pharmacological antidotes. [12] In inflammatory disorders, existing agents neutralizing one or a few cytokines are insufficient to halt or reverse disease progression due to the multiplicity of cytokine targets and signaling network redundancy. [20] In bacterial infections, bacterial toxins display enormous diversity of molecular structures and epitopic targets. [21,22] In contrast, current neutralizing agents target specific toxin structures and require customized design for different toxins, making their wide applications impractical. Similarly, viral neutralization focuses heavily on specific viral species and therefore cannot be deployed across different species or families of viruses or may be rendered ineffective as the virus accumulates mutations and escapes treatments. [23] Overall, these challenges underscore the need for innovative biological neutralization approaches.Recently, the emergency of cell-membrane-coated nanoparticles offers a unique solution to address the challenges facing current biological neutralization technologies. [24] These nanoparticles are made by first deriving natural cell membranes and then coating them onto synthetic cores. Cell-membranecoated nanoparticles were first developed by coating red blood cell (RBC) membranes onto polymeric cores. [25] The goal was to replicate the long-circulation feature of natural RBCs desirable for drug delivery. However, the success of these biomimetic nanoparticles soon sparked the idea of using them as decoys of susceptible RBCs for biological neutralization. [26] All pathological agents must interact with host cells for their bioactivity.Biological neutralization represents a general strategy that deploys therapeutic agents to bind with harmful molecules or infectious pathogens, block their bioactivity, and thus prevent them from causing the diseases. Here, a comprehensive review of using cell-membrane-coated nanoparticles, namely "cellular nanosponges," as host decoys for a wide range of biological neutralization applications is provided. Compared to traditional neutralization strategies, the cellu...

Versatile Applications of Nanosponges in Biomedical Field: A Glimpse on SARS-CoV-2 Management

“…Cellular NSs act as versatile tools for biological neutralization in comparison to the traditional neutralization strategies. They mimic susceptible host cells rather than accommodating the structures of the causative agents for the design of therapeutics [ 77 ]. The coating of NSs with PLGA core in the membrane of cellular targets in virus showed a good result.…”

Nanosponges: An overlooked promising strategy to combat SARS-CoV-2

“… 60 Typically, antiviral agents target a singular viral site, thus suffer limitations of infectiveness against viruses because of their various mutations and escape strategies. [61] , [62] , [63] For instance, biomimetic proteolipid bilayer decoy receptor nanosponges constructed molecularly (∼100-nm nanospheres) were explored against SARS-CoV-2, and demonstrated promising inhibitory effects. This nanosystem neutralized SARS-CoV-2 infections in animal/human cells and also trapped the viral particles.…”

Application of Organoids in Carcinogenesis Modeling and Tumor Vaccination

“…However, how to select certain types of cells as targets for transgenic or epigenetic manipulation, drug delivery, or local extracellular modification is still a bench-side issue ( 158 , 159 ). Nanoparticles generated from polymer or liposomes are utilized as encapsulation carriers for astrocytes and other cells ( 164 ). In another innovative application of nanomedicine, iPSC-derived neural cells and the astrocyte neuron coculture system have been applied as a screening platform to evaluate neurotoxicity.…”

“…An alternative way to reduce toxicity is to use exosomes as a source of nanocarriers, which can increase cell type-specific targeting and enhance their functionality by engineering surface antibodies. Verification of the toxicity of nanomaterials in organoids requires much further attention ( 158 , 159 , 164 ).…”