Surface-Mediated Intracellular Delivery by Physical Membrane Disruption

A photothermal surface modified with polyelectrolyte multilayers for gene transfection and cell harvest

Gene transfection, which involves introducing nucleic acids into cells, is a pivotal technology in the life sciences and medical fields, particularly in gene therapy. Surface-mediated transfection, primarily targeting cells adhering to surfaces, shows promise for enhancing cell transfection by localizing and presenting surface-bound nucleic acids directly to the cells. However, optimizing endocytosis for efficient delivery remains a persistent challenge. Additionally, ensuring efficient and non-traumatic cell harvest capability is crucial for applications such as ex vivo cell-based therapy. To address these challenges, we developed a photothermal platform with enzymatic degradation capability for efficient gene transfection and cell harvest. This platform is based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) doped with poly(dimethylsiloxane) and modified with polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) containing hyaluronic acid and quaternized chitosan, allowing for substantial loading of poly(ethyleneimine)/plasmid DNA (pDNA) complexes through electrostatic interactions. Upon irradiation of near-infrared laser, the photothermal properties of CNTs enable high transfection efficiency by delivering pDNA into attached cells via a membrane disruption mechanism. The engineered cells can be harvested by treating with a non-toxic hyaluronidase solution to degrade PEMs, thus maintaining good viability for further applications. This platform has demonstrated remarkable efficacy across various cell lines (including Hep-G2 cells, Ramos cells and primary T cells), achieving a transfection efficiency exceeding 95 %, cell viability exceeding 90 %, and release efficiency surpassing 95 %, highlighting its potential for engineering living cells.

A Photothermal Polymeric Platform for Efficient and Safe Gene Transfection: When Polyethylenimine Collaborates with Indocyanine Green

Gene transfection, defined by the delivery of nucleic acids into cellular compartments, stands as a crucial procedure in gene therapy. While branched polyethylenimine (PEI) is widely regarded as the "gold standard" for nonviral vectors, its cationic nature presents several issues, including nonspecific protein adsorption and notable cytotoxicity. Additionally, it often fails to achieve high transfection efficiency, particularly with hard-to-transfect cell types. To overcome these challenges associated with PEI as a vector for plasmid DNA (pDNA), the photothermal agent indocyanine green (ICG) is integrated with PEI and pDNA to form the PEI/ICG/pDNA (PI/pDNA) complex for more efficient and safer gene transfection. The negatively charged ICG serves a dual purpose: neutralizing PEI's excessive positive charges to reduce cytotoxicity and, under near-infrared irradiation, inducing local heating that enhances cell membrane permeability, thus facilitating the uptake of PI/pDNA complexes to boost transfection efficiency. Using pDNA encoding vascular endothelial growth factor as a model, our system shows enhanced transfection efficiency in vitro for hard-to-transfect endothelial cells, leading to improved cell proliferation and migration. Furthermore, in vivo studies reveal the therapeutic potential of this system in accelerating the healing of infected wounds by promoting angiogenesis and reducing inflammation. This approach offers a straightforward and effective method for gene transfection, showing potentials for tissue engineering and cell-based therapies.

Regulating the Distribution and Accumulation of Charged Molecules by Progressive Electroporation for Improved Intracellular Delivery

The cell membrane separates the intracellular compartment from the extracellular environment, constraining exogenous molecules to enter the cell. Conventional electroporation typically employs high-voltage and short-duration pulses to facilitate the transmembrane transport of molecules impermeable to the membrane under natural conditions by creating temporary hydrophilic pores on the membrane. Electroporation not only enables the entry of exogenous molecules but also directs the intracellular distribution of the electric field. Recent advancements have markedly enhanced the efficiency of intracellular molecule delivery, achieved through the utilization of microstructures, microelectrodes, and surface modifications. However, little attention is paid to regulating the motion of molecules during and after passing through the membrane to improve delivery efficiency, resulting in an unsatisfactory delivery efficiency and high dose demand. Here, we proposed the strategy of regulating the motion of charged molecules during the delivery process by progressive electroporation (PEP), utilizing modulated electric fields. Efficient delivery of charged molecules with an expanded distribution and increased accumulation by PEP was demonstrated through numerical simulations and experimental results. The dose demand can be reduced by 10-40% depending on the size and charge of the molecules. We confirmed the safety of PEP for intracellular delivery in both short and long terms through cytotoxicity assays and transcriptome analysis. Overall, this work not only reveals the mechanism and effectiveness of PEP-enhanced intracellular delivery of charged molecules but also suggests the potential integration of field manipulation of molecular motion with surface modification techniques for biomedical applications such as cell engineering and sensitive cellular monitoring.

Cell Membrane Perforation: Patterns, Mechanisms and Functions

Cell membrane is crucial for the cellular activities, and any disruption to it may affect the cells. It is demonstrated that cell membrane perforation is associated with some biological processes like programmed cell death (PCD) and infection of pathogens. Specific developments make it a promising technique to perforate the cell membrane controllably and precisely. The pores on the cell membrane provide direct pathways for the entry and exit of substances, and can also cause cell death, which means reasonable utilization of cell membrane perforation is able to assist intracellular delivery, eliminate diseased or cancerous cells, and bring about other benefits. This review classifies the patterns of cell membrane perforation based on the mechanisms into 1) physical patterns, 2) biological patterns, and 3) chemical patterns, introduces the characterization methods and then summarizes the functions according to the characteristics of reversible and irreversible pores, with the aim of providing a comprehensive summary of the knowledge related to cell membrane perforation and enlightening broad applications in biomedical science.

Coupling of nanostraws with diverse physicochemical perforation strategies for intracellular DNA delivery

Effective intracellular DNA transfection is imperative for cell-based therapy and gene therapy. Conventional gene transfection methods, including biochemical carriers, physical electroporation and microinjection, face challenges such as cell type dependency, low efficiency, safety concerns, and technical complexity. Nanoneedle arrays have emerged as a promising avenue for improving cellular nucleic acid delivery through direct penetration of the cell membrane, bypassing endocytosis and endosome escape processes. Nanostraws (NS), characterized by their hollow tubular structure, offer the advantage of flexible solution delivery compared to solid nanoneedles. However, NS struggle to stably self-penetrate the cell membrane, resulting in limited delivery efficiency. Coupling with extra physiochemical perforation strategies is a viable approach to improve their performance. This study systematically compared the efficiency of NS coupled with polyethylenimine (PEI) chemical modification, mechanical force, photothermal effect, and electric field on cell membrane perforation and DNA transfection. The results indicate that coupling NS with PEI modification, mechanical force, photothermal effects provide limited enhancement effects. In contrast, NS-electric field coupling significantly improves intracellular DNA transfection efficiency. This work demonstrates that NS serve as a versatile platform capable of integrating various physicochemical strategies, while electric field coupling stands out as a form worthy of primary consideration for efficient DNA transfection.

Enhanced Intracellular Delivery and Cell Harvest Using a Candle Soot-Based Photothermal Platform with Dual-Stimulus Responsiveness

Intracellular delivery of bioactive macromolecules and functional materials plays a crucial role in fundamental biological research and clinical applications. Nondestructive and efficient harvesting of engineered cells is also required for some specific applications. In this work, we develop a multifunctional platform based on candle soot modified with copolymer brushes containing temperature-responsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) and sugar-responsive phenylboronic acid (PBA) components. This platform possesses a high cell adhesion capacity due to the inherent hierarchical structure of candle soot and the formation of boronate ester bonds between the PBA groups and glycoproteins on the cell membrane. Under the irradiation of a near-infrared laser, the excellent light-to-heat conversion ability of candle soot enables the highly efficient delivery of macromolecules into diverse cells (including hard-to-transfect cells) attached to the surface via a photothermal-poration mechanism. Owing to the temperature-responsive properties of PNIPAAm and the sugar-responsive properties of PBA, the engineered cells could be harvested nondestructively from the platform by a mild treatment using a cold fructose solution. A proof-of-concept experiment demonstrates that fibroblasts attached to the surface could be transfected by a functional plasmid encoding basic fibroblast growth factor and then harvested efficiently and recultured with improved proliferation and migration ability. The whole delivery-harvesting process required less than 1 h, allowing the cells to be engineered without compromising their viability. This platform thus provides a widely applicable method for both the intracellular delivery of diverse macromolecules efficiently as well as harvesting engineered cells simply and safely, holding great potential for biomedical applications.

Electroactive nanoinjection platform for intracellular delivery and gene silencing

BACKGROUND

Nanoinjection-the process of intracellular delivery using vertically configured nanostructures-is a physical route that efficiently negotiates the plasma membrane, with minimal perturbation and toxicity to the cells. Nanoinjection, as a physical membrane-disruption-mediated approach, overcomes challenges associated with conventional carrier-mediated approaches such as safety issues (with viral carriers), genotoxicity, limited packaging capacity, low levels of endosomal escape, and poor versatility for cell and cargo types. Yet, despite the implementation of nanoinjection tools and their assisted analogues in diverse cellular manipulations, there are still substantial challenges in harnessing these platforms to gain access into cell interiors with much greater precision without damaging the cell's intricate structure. Here, we propose a non-viral, low-voltage, and reusable electroactive nanoinjection (ENI) platform based on vertically configured conductive nanotubes (NTs) that allows for rapid influx of targeted biomolecular cargos into the intracellular environment, and for successful gene silencing. The localization of electric fields at the tight interface between conductive NTs and the cell membrane drastically lowers the voltage required for cargo delivery into the cells, from kilovolts (for bulk electroporation) to only ≤ 10 V; this enhances the fine control over membrane disruption and mitigates the problem of high cell mortality experienced by conventional electroporation.

RESULTS

Through both theoretical simulations and experiments, we demonstrate the capability of the ENI platform to locally perforate GPE-86 mouse fibroblast cells and efficiently inject a diverse range of membrane-impermeable biomolecules with efficacy of 62.5% (antibody), 55.5% (mRNA), and 51.8% (plasmid DNA), with minimal impact on cells' viability post nanoscale-EP (> 90%). We also show gene silencing through the delivery of siRNA that targets TRIOBP, yielding gene knockdown efficiency of 41.3%.

CONCLUSIONS

We anticipate that our non-viral and low-voltage ENI platform is set to offer a new safe path to intracellular delivery with broader selection of cargo and cell types, and will open opportunities for advanced ex vivo cell engineering and gene silencing.

The Dawn of a New Era: Targeting the "Undruggables" with Antibody-Based Therapeutics

The high selectivity and affinity of antibodies toward their antigens have made them a highly valuable tool in disease therapy, diagnosis, and basic research. A plethora of chemical and genetic approaches have been devised to make antibodies accessible to more "undruggable" targets and equipped with new functions of illustrating or regulating biological processes more precisely. In this Review, in addition to introducing how naked antibodies and various antibody conjugates (such as antibody-drug conjugates, antibody-oligonucleotide conjugates, antibody-enzyme conjugates, etc.) work in therapeutic applications, special attention has been paid to how chemistry tools have helped to optimize the therapeutic outcome (i.e., with enhanced efficacy and reduced side effects) or facilitate the multifunctionalization of antibodies, with a focus on emerging fields such as targeted protein degradation, real-time live-cell imaging, catalytic labeling or decaging with spatiotemporal control as well as the engagement of antibodies inside cells. With advances in modern chemistry and biotechnology, well-designed antibodies and their derivatives via size miniaturization or multifunctionalization together with efficient delivery systems have emerged, which have gradually improved our understanding of important biological processes and paved the way to pursue novel targets for potential treatments of various diseases.

Pore forming-mediated intracellular protein delivery for enhanced cancer immunotherapy

Directly delivering therapeutic proteins to their intracellular targets remains a great challenge. Here, we apply CD8⁺ T cells to form pores on the tumor cells' plasma membranes, enabling perfusion of ribonuclease A (RNase A) and granzyme B into cells, therefore effectively inducing tumor apoptosis and pyroptosis by activating caspase 3 and gasdermin E pathways to potentiate the CD8⁺ T cell-mediated immunotherapy. Then, RNase A, programmed cell death ligand 1 antibody, and a photothermal agent were further loaded into an injectable hydrogel to treat the low immunogenic murine breast cancer. Notably, three courses of laser irradiation induced efficient cell apoptosis and immune activation, resulting in a notable therapeutic efficacy that 75% of the tumors were ablated without relapse.

Safe and efficient RNA and DNA introduction into cells using digital electroporation system

We systematically compared the delivery and expression efficiencies according to cell types (plant and animal cells) and genetic materials (RNA and DNA) to deliver RNA using a digital electroporation system. Despite the significantly lower RNA delivery in Chlamydomoans reinhartii than DNA delivery due to RNA secondary structure and cell wall, the expression/delivery ratio of RNA was significantly higher than that of DNA (up to 90%), confirming the generally known fact that RNA is more favorable for expression than DNA. On the other hand, in K562 cells, the difference in RNA and DNA delivery efficiency was negligible. Therefore, structural differences between DNA and RNA affect delivery efficiency differently depending on the cell type. RNA delivery efficiency of K562 cells was high, but expression efficiency was much lower than that of microalgae. According to the proposed strategy, compatibility between K562 cells and the nucleic acids used in this study is presumed to be one of the reasons for this low expression efficiency. Gene regulation by delivering small interfering RNA (siRNA) was demonstrated in K562 cells, confirming the feasibility of the digital electroporation system for RNA interference (RNAi) research as a safe and efficient delivery system.

Polysaccharide-Polyplex Nanofilm Coatings Enhance Nanoneedle-Based Gene Delivery and Transfection Efficiency

Non-viral vectors represent versatile and immunologically safer alternatives for nucleic acid delivery. Nanoneedles and high-aspect ratio nanostructures are unconventional but interesting delivery systems, in which delivery is mediated by surface interactions. Herein, nanoneedles are synergistically combined with polysaccharide-polyplex nanofilms and enhanced transfection efficiency is observed, compared to polyplexes in suspension. Different polyplex-polyelectrolyte nanofilm combinations are assessed and it is found that transfection efficiency is enhanced when using polysaccharide-based polyanions, rather than being only specific for hyaluronic acid, as suggested in earlier studies. Moreover, results show that enhanced transfection is not mediated by interactions with the CD44 receptor, previously hypothesized as a major mechanism mediating enhancement via hyaluronate. In cardiac tissue, nanoneedles are shown to increase the transfection efficiency of nanofilms compared to flat substrates; while in vitro, high transfection efficiencies are observed in nanostructures where cells present large interfacing areas with the substrate. The results of this study demonstrate that surface-mediated transfection using this system is efficient and safe, requiring amounts of nucleic acid with an order of magnitude lower than standard culture transfection. These findings expand the spectrum of possible polyelectrolyte combinations that can be used for the development of suitable non-viral vectors for exploration in further clinical trials.

Arginine-Rich Polymers with Pore-Forming Capability Enable Efficient Intracellular Delivery via Direct Translocation Across Cell Membrane

Efficient delivery of biomacromolecules or drugs across the cell membrane via endocytosis usually encounters inevitable entrapment in endosomes and subsequent degradation in lyso-endosomes. To address this issue, a series of arginine-rich cell penetrating polymers is designed and synthesized, which internalize into cells by inducing the formation of pores on the cell membrane, thereby crossing the cell membrane via direct translocation that fundamentally avoids endo/lysosomal entrapment. The structure-activity relationship studies show that PTn-R2-C6, which is a type of polymer that has two arginine residues and a flexible hexanoic acid linker in each side chain, exhibits excellent pore-formation ability on the cell membrane. Further investigations indicate that PTn-R2-C6 rapidly transports plasmid DNAs into cytosol through a similar endocytosis-independent pathway, thereby achieving significantly higher transfection efficiency and lower cytotoxicity than the gold-standard transfection reagent PEI 25K. These results suggest the great potential of PTn-R2-C6 as a safe and efficient gene transfection reagent for wide applications including disease treatments, vaccine development, and biomedical research purposes.

Photothermal scaffolds/surfaces for regulation of cell behaviors

Regulation of cell behaviors and even cell fates is of great significance in diverse biomedical applications such as cancer treatment, cell-based therapy, and tissue engineering. During the past decades, diverse methods have been developed to regulate cell behaviors such as applying external stimuli, delivering exogenous molecules into cell interior and changing the physicochemical properties of the substrates where cells adhere. Photothermal scaffolds/surfaces refer to a kind of materials embedded or coated with photothermal agents that can absorb light with proper wavelength (usually in near infrared region) and convert light energy to heat; the generated heat shows great potential for regulation of cell behaviors in different ways. In the current review, we summarize the recent research progress, especially over the past decade, of using photothermal scaffolds/surfaces to regulate cell behaviors, which could be further categorized into three types: (i) killing the tumor cells via hyperthermia or thermal ablation, (ii) engineering cells by intracellular delivery of exogenous molecules via photothermal poration of cell membranes, and (iii) releasing a single cell or an intact cell sheet via modulation of surface physicochemical properties in response to heat. In the end, challenges and perspectives in these areas are commented.

A Photothermal Nanoplatform with Sugar-Triggered Cleaning Ability for High-Efficiency Intracellular Delivery

Intracellular delivery of functional molecules is of great importance in various biomedical and biotechnology applications. Recently, nanoparticle-based photothermal poration has attracted increasing attention because it provided a facile and efficient method to permeabilize cells transiently, facilitating the entry of exogenous molecules into cells. However, this method still has some safety concerns associated with the nanoparticles that bind to the cell membranes or enter the cells. Herein, a nanoplatform with both photothermal property and sugar-triggered cleaning ability for intracellular delivery is developed based on phenylboronic acid (PBA) functionalized porous magnetic nanoparticles (named as M-PBA). The M-PBA particles could bind to the target cells effectively through the specific interactions between PBA groups and the cis-diol containing components on the cell membrane. During a short-term near-infrared irradiation, the bound particles convert absorbed light energy to heat, enabling high-efficiency delivery of various exogenous molecules into the target cells via a photothermal poration mechanism. After delivery, the bound particles could be easily "cleaned" from the cell surface via mild sugar-treatment and collected by a magnet, avoiding the possible side effects caused by the entrance of particles or their fragments. The delivery and cleaning process is short and effective without compromising the viability and proliferation ability of the cells with delivered molecules, suggesting that the M-PBA particles could be used as promising intracellular delivery agents with a unique combination of efficiency, safety, and flexibility.

A Novel Antibacterial Gold Nanoparticles Layer with Self-Cleaning Ability by the Production of Oxygen Bubbles

Bacterial contamination of medical devices not only constitutes a serious threat to the health of patients, but also promotes the evolution of bacterial drug-resistance. Here, a new strategy to fabricate...

Tutorial: using nanoneedles for intracellular delivery

Intracellular delivery of advanced therapeutics, including biologicals and supramolecular agents, is complex because of the natural biological barriers that have evolved to protect the cell. Efficient delivery of therapeutic nucleic acids, proteins, peptides and nanoparticles is crucial for clinical adoption of emerging technologies that can benefit disease treatment through gene and cell therapy. Nanoneedles are arrays of vertical high-aspect-ratio nanostructures that can precisely manipulate complex processes at the cell interface, enabling effective intracellular delivery. This emerging technology has already enabled the development of efficient and non-destructive routes for direct access to intracellular environments and delivery of cell-impermeant payloads. However, successful implementation of this technology requires knowledge of several scientific fields, making it complex to access and adopt by researchers who are not directly involved in developing nanoneedle platforms. This presents an obstacle to the widespread adoption of nanoneedle technologies for drug delivery. This tutorial aims to equip researchers with the knowledge required to develop a nanoinjection workflow. It discusses the selection of nanoneedle devices, approaches for cargo loading and strategies for interfacing to biological systems and summarises an array of bioassays that can be used to evaluate the efficacy of intracellular delivery.

An acoustic field-based conformal transfection system for improving the gene delivery efficiency

Ultrasound-activated microbubble destruction is a promising platform for gene delivery due to the low toxicity, non-invasiveness, and high specificity. However, the gene transfection efficiency is still low, especially for suspension cells. It is desirable to develop a universal gene delivery tool that overcomes the drawbacks existing in ultrasound-mediated methods. Here, we present a three-dimensional acoustic field-based conformal transfection (AFCT) system by designing a Sono-hole that can fit the three-dimensional acoustic field to maximally utilize the acoustic energy from bubble cavitation, thus greatly promoting the gene delivery efficiency. Surprisingly, compared with the traditional two-dimensional transfection system, the gene transfection efficiency of the AFCT system increased by more than 3 times, achieving nearly 30%. The parameters including acoustic pressure, duration, duty cycle, DNA concentrations, and bubble kinds were optimized to obtain higher gene transfection. In conclusion, our study provides an effective ultrasound-based gene delivery approach for gene transfection, especially for suspension-cultured cells.

Ultrahigh Efficiency and Minimalist Intracellular Delivery of Macromolecules Mediated by Latent-Photothermal Surfaces

Intracellular delivery of exogenous macromolecules by photothermal methods is still not widely employed despite its universal and clear effect on cell membrane rupture. The main causes are the unsatisfactory delivery efficiency, poor cell activity, poor cell harvest, and sophisticated operation; these challenges stem from the difficulty of simply controlling laser hotspots. Here, we constructed latent-photothermal surfaces based on multiwall carbon nanotube-doped poly(dimethyl siloxane), which can deliver cargoes with high delivery efficiency and cell viability. Also, cell release and harvest efficiencies were not affected by coordinating the hotspot content and surface structure. This system is suitable for use with a wide range of cell lines, including hard-to-transfect types. The delivery efficiency and cell viability were shown to be greater than 85 and 80%, respectively, and the cell release and harvest efficiency were greater than 95 and 80%, respectively. Moreover, this system has potential application prospects in the field of cell therapy, including stem cell neural differentiation and dendritic cell vaccines.

Photothermal Intracellular Delivery Using Gold Nanodisk Arrays

Local heating using pulsed laser-induced photothermal effects on plasmonic nanostructured substrates can be used for intracellular delivery applications. However, the fabrication of plasmonic nanostructured interfaces is hampered by complex nanomanufacturing schemes. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of large-area plasmonic gold (Au) nanodisk arrays that enable photothermal intracellular delivery of biomolecular cargo at high efficiency. The Au nanodisks (350 nm in diameter) were fabricated using chemical lift-off lithography (CLL). Nanosecond laser pulses were used to excite the plasmonic nanostructures, thereby generating transient pores at the outer membranes of targeted cells that enable the delivery of biomolecules via diffusion. Delivery efficiencies of >98% were achieved using the cell impermeable dye calcein (0.6 kDa) as a model payload, while maintaining cell viabilities at >98%. The highly efficient intracellular delivery approach demonstrated in this work will facilitate translational studies targeting molecular screening and drug testing that bridge laboratory and clinical investigations.