Mimicking cellular transport mechanism in stem cells through endosomal escape of new peptide-coated quantum dots

Targeted gene delivery systems for T-cell engineering

T lymphocytes are indispensable for the host systems of defense against pathogens, tumors, and environmental threats. The therapeutic potential of harnessing the cytotoxic properties of T lymphocytes for antigen-specific cell elimination is both evident and efficacious. Genetically engineered T-cells, such as those employed in CAR-T and TCR-T cell therapies, have demonstrated significant clinical benefits in treating cancer and autoimmune disorders. However, the current landscape of T-cell genetic engineering is dominated by strategies that necessitate in vitro T-cell isolation and modification, which introduce complexity and prolong the development timeline of T-cell based immunotherapies. This review explores the complexities of gene delivery systems designed for T cells, covering both viral and nonviral vectors. Viral vectors are known for their high transduction efficiency, yet they face significant limitations, such as potential immunogenicity and the complexities involved in large-scale production. Nonviral vectors, conversely, offer a safer profile and the potential for scalable manufacturing, yet they often struggle with lower transduction efficiency. The pursuit of gene delivery systems that can achieve targeted gene transfer to T cell without the need for isolation represents a significant advancement in the field. This review assesses the design principles and current research progress of such systems, highlighting the potential for in vivo gene modification therapies that could revolutionize T-cell based treatments. By providing a comprehensive analysis of these systems, we aim to contribute valuable insights into the future development of T-cell immunotherapy.

Endosomal Escapable and Nuclear Localizing Cationic Polyaspartate-Based CRISPR Activation System for Preventing Respiratory Virus Infection by Specifically Inducing Interferon-λ

Global pandemics caused by viruses cause widespread panic and economic losses. The lack of specific antivirals and vaccines increases the spreading of viral diseases worldwide. Thus, alternative strategies are required to manage viral outbreaks. Here, we develop a CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) system based on polymeric carriers to prevent respiratory virus infection in a mouse model. A polyaspartate grafted with 2-(diisopropylamino) ethylamine (DIP) and nuclear localization signal peptides (NLS-MTAS fusion peptide) was complexed with plasmid DNA (pDNA) encoding dCas9-VPR and sgRNA targeting IFN-λ. The pH-sensitive DIP and NLS-MTAS groups were favor of endo-lysosomal escape and nuclear localization of pDNA, respectively. They synergistically improved gene transfection efficiency, resulting in significant reporter gene expression and IFN-λ upregulation in lung tissue. In vitro and in vivo prophylactic experiments showed that the non-viral CRISPRa system could prevent infection caused by H1N1 viruses with minimal inflammatory responses, presenting a promising prophylactic approach against respiratory virus infections.

Non-viral CRISPR activation system targeting VEGF-A and TGF-β1 for enhanced osteogenesis of pre-osteoblasts implanted with dual-crosslinked hydrogel

Healing of large calvarial bone defects remains challenge but may be improved by stimulating bone regeneration of implanted cells. The aim of this study is to specially co-activate transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF-A) genes expressions in pre-osteoblast MC3T3-E1 cells through the non-viral CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) system to promote osteogenesis. A cationic copolymer carrying nucleus localizing peptides and proton sponge groups dimethyl-histidine was synthesized to deliver CRISPRa system into MC3T3-E1 cells with high cellular uptake, lysosomal escape, and nuclear translocation, which activated VEGF-A and TGF-β1 genes expressions and thereby additively or synergistically induced several osteogenic genes expressions. A tunable dual-crosslinked hydrogel was developed to implant the above engineered cells into mice calvaria bone defect site to promote bone healing in vivo. The combination of multi-genes activation through non-viral CRISPRa system and tunable dual-crosslinked hydrogel provides a versatile strategy for promoting bone healing with synergistic effect.

Lipid nanoparticles produce chimeric antigen receptor T cells with interleukin-6 knockdown in vivo

Chimeric receptor T cells (CAR-T) can effectively cure leukemia; however, there are two limitations: a complicated preparation process ex vivo and cytokine release syndrome (CRS). In this study, we constructed a lipid nanoparticle system modified by CD3 antibody on the surface, loading with the plasmid containing the combination gene of interleukin 6 short hairpin RNA (IL-6 shRNA) and CD19-CAR (AntiCD3-LNP/CAR19 + shIL6). The system targeted T cells by the mediation of CD3 antibody and stably transfected T cells to transform them into CAR-T cells with IL-6 knockdown, thus killing CD19-highly expressed leukemia tumor cells and reducing CRS caused by IL-6. In vivo experiments showed that AntiCD3-LNP/CAR19 + shIL6 could stably transfect T cells and produce CAR-T within 90 days to kill the tumor. This significantly prolonged the survival time of leukemia model mice and demonstrated the prepared LNP exhibited the same anti-tumor effect as the traditional CAR-T cells prepared ex vivo. In this study, CAR-T cells were directly produced in vivo after intravenous injection of the lipid nanoparticles, without the need of using the current complex process ex vivo. Additionally, IL-6 expression was silenced, which would be helpful to reduce the CRS and improve the safety of CAR-T therapy. This method improves the convenience of using CAR-T technology and is helpful in further promoting the clinical application of CAR-T.

Nanotechnology for Enhanced Cytoplasmic and Organelle Delivery of Bioactive Molecules to Immune Cells

Immune cells stand as a critical component of the immune system to maintain the internal environment homeostasis. The dysfunction of immune cells can result in various life-threatening diseases, including refractory infection, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Therefore, strategies to standardize or even enhance the function of immune cells are critical. Recently, nanotechnology has been highly researched and extensively applied for enhancing the cytoplasmic delivery of bioactive molecules to immune cells, providing efficient approaches to correct in vivo and in vitro dysfunction of immune cells. This review focuses on the technologies and challenges involved in improving endo-lysosomal escape, cytoplasmic release and organelle targeted delivery of different bioactive molecules in immune cells. Furthermore, it will elaborate on the broader vision of applying nanotechnology for treating immune cell-related diseases and constructing immune therapies and cytopharmaceuticals as potential treatments for diseases.

Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs): an overview of applications for improving the potential of nanotherapeutics

In the field of nanotherapeutics, gaining cellular entry into the cytoplasm of the target cell continues to be an ultimate challenge. There are many physicochemical factors such as charge, size and molecular weight of the molecules and delivery vehicles, which restrict their cellular entry. Hence, to dodge such situations, a class of short peptides called cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) was brought into use. CPPs can effectively interact with the cell membrane and can assist in achieving the desired intracellular entry. Such strategy is majorly employed in the field of cancer therapy and diagnosis, but now it is also used for other purposes such as evaluation of atherosclerotic plaques, determination of thrombin levels and HIV therapy. Thus, the current review expounds on each of these mentioned aspects. Further, the review briefly summarizes the basic know-how of CPPs, their utility as therapeutic molecules, their use in cancer therapy, tumor imaging and their assistance to nanocarriers in improving their membrane penetrability. The review also discusses the challenges faced with CPPs pertaining to their stability and also mentions the strategies to overcome them. Thus, in a nutshell, this review will assist in understanding how CPPs can present novel possibilities for resolving the conventional issues faced with the present-day nanotherapeutics.

Integrating Biomaterials and Genome Editing Approaches to Advance Biomedical Science

The recent discovery and subsequent development of the CRISPR-Cas9 (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat-CRISPR-associated protein 9) platform as a precise genome editing tool have transformed biomedicine. As these CRISPR-based tools have matured, multiple stages of the gene editing process and the bioengineering of human cells and tissues have advanced. Here, we highlight recent intersections in the development of biomaterials and genome editing technologies. These intersections include the delivery of macromolecules, where biomaterial platforms have been harnessed to enable nonviral delivery of genome engineering tools to cells and tissues in vivo. Further, engineering native-like biomaterial platforms for cell culture facilitates complex modeling of human development and disease when combined with genome engineering tools. Deeper integration of biomaterial platforms in these fields could play a significant role in enabling new breakthroughs in the application of gene editing for the treatment of human disease.

Stabilization of Poly (β-Amino Ester) Nanoparticles for the Efficient Intracellular Delivery of PiggyBac Transposon

The administration of gene-editing tools has been proposed as a promising therapeutic approach for correcting mutations that cause diseases. Gene-editing tools, composed of relatively large plasmid DNA constructs that often need to be co-delivered with a guiding protein, are unable to spontaneously penetrate mammalian cells. Although viral vectors facilitate DNA delivery, they are restricted by the size of the plasmid to carry. In this work, we describe a strategy for the stable encapsulation of the gene-editing tool piggyBac transposon into Poly (β-amino ester) nanoparticles (NPs). We propose a non-covalent and a covalent strategy for stabilization of the nanoformulation to slow down release kinetics and enhance intracellular delivery. We found that the formulation prepared by covalently crosslinking Poly (β-amino ester) NPs are capable to translocate into the cytoplasm and nuclei of human glioblastoma (U87MG) cells within 1 h of co-culturing, without the need of a targeting moiety. Once internalized, the nanoformulation dissociates, delivering the plasmid presumably as a response to the intracellular acidic pH. Transfection efficiency is confirmed by green fluorescence protein (GFP) expression in U87MG cells. Covalently stabilized Poly (β-amino ester) NPs are able to transfect ~55% of cells causing non-cytotoxic effects. The strategy described in this work may serve for the efficient non-viral delivery of other gene-editing tools.

Nanotechnology and immunoengineering: How nanotechnology can boost CAR-T therapy

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapy has achieved remarkable clinical efficacy against hematological cancers and has been approved by FDA for treatment of B-cell tumors. However, the complex manufacturing process and limited success in solid tumors hamper its widespread applications, thus prompting the development of new strategies for overcoming the abovementioned hurdles. In the last decade, nanotechnology has provided sustainable strategies for improving cancer immunotherapy through vaccine development and delivery of immunomodulatory drugs. Nanotechnology can boost CAR-T therapy and may overcome the existing challenges by emerging as a carrier for CAR-T therapy or in combination with CAR-T, it may inhibit solid tumors more effectively than conventional approaches. The revealing of cellular mechanisms, barriers and potential strategies that could be used to manipulate and/or modify cells would enable unprecedented advances in nanotechnology for biologics delivery. This review outlines the journey and barriers of nanoparticles (NPs) across the cell. Subsequently, the approaches to tackle the barriers and strategies to modulate NPs as a carrier for CAR-T therapy are discussed. Finally, the role of NPs in CAR-T therapy and the potential challenges are summarized. This review aims to provide the readers with a detailed overview of NP-based CAR-T therapy research and distil this information into an accessible form conducive to design desired CAR-T therapy using NP approach. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is the most vibrant field in immuno-oncology today, with enormous benefits to patients with B-cell malignancies. However, a rapid and straightforward procedure for CAR-T generation is an exigent need to broaden its therapeutic avenue. Nanotechnology has emerged as a novel alternative approach for CAR-T generation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first in-depth review that briefly highlights the various aspects of nanotechnology in CAR-T therapy, including the strategies to brand NPs as an effective carrier for CAR cargo, its potential advantages, challenges, and future roadmap. It provides readers with a detailed overview of NP-based CAR-T therapy research, and researchers would be able to distill this information into an accessible form conducive to design the desired CAR therapy using the nanotechnology approach.

Lipid-peptide bioconjugation through pyridyl disulfide reaction chemistry and its application in cell targeting and drug delivery

Background

The design of efficient drug delivery vectors requires versatile formulations able to simultaneously direct a multitude of molecular targets and to bypass the endosomal recycling pathway of cells. Liposomal-based vectors need the decoration of the lipid surface with specific peptides to fulfill the functional requirements. The unspecific binding of peptides to the lipid surface is often accompanied with uncontrolled formulations and thus preventing the molecular mechanisms of a successful therapy.

Results

We present a simple synthesis pathway to anchor cysteine-terminal peptides to thiol-reactive lipids for adequate and quantitative liposomal formulations. As a proof of concept, we have synthesized two different lipopeptides based on (a) the truncated Fibroblast Growth Factor (tbFGF) for cell targeting and (b) the pH sensitive and fusogenic GALA peptide for endosomal scape.

Conclusions

The incorporation of these two lipopeptides in the liposomal formulation improves the fibroblast cell targeting and promotes the direct delivery of cargo molecules to the cytoplasm of the cell.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12951-019-0509-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Engineering Platforms for T Cell Modulation

T cells are crucial contributors to mounting an effective immune response and increasingly the focus of therapeutic interventions in cancer, infectious disease, and autoimmunity. Translation of current T cell immunotherapies has been hindered by off-target toxicities, limited efficacy, biological variability, and high costs. As T cell therapeutics continue to develop, the application of engineering concepts to control their delivery and presentation will be critical for their success. Here, we outline the engineer's toolbox and contextualize it with the biology of T cells. We focus on the design principles of T cell modulation platforms regarding size, shape, material, and ligand choice. Furthermore, we review how application of these design principles has already impacted T cell immunotherapies and our understanding of T cell biology. Recent, salient examples from protein engineering, synthetic particles, cellular and genetic engineering, and scaffolds and surfaces are provided to reinforce the importance of design considerations. Our aim is to provide a guide for immunologists, engineers, clinicians, and the pharmaceutical sector for the design of T cell-targeting platforms.

In situ programming of leukaemia-specific T cells using synthetic DNA nanocarriers

An emerging approach for treating cancer involves programming patient-derived T cells with genes encoding disease-specific chimeric antigen receptors (CARs), so that they can combat tumour cells once they are reinfused. Although trials of this therapy have produced impressive results, the in vitro methods they require to generate large numbers of tumour-specific T cells are too elaborate for widespread application to treat cancer patients. Here, we describe a method to quickly program circulating T cells with tumour-recognizing capabilities, thus avoiding these complications. Specifically, we demonstrate that DNA-carrying nanoparticles can efficiently introduce leukaemia-targeting CAR genes into T-cell nuclei, thereby bringing about long-term disease remission. These polymer nanoparticles are easy to manufacture in a stable form, which simplifies storage and reduces cost. Our technology may therefore provide a practical, broadly applicable treatment that can generate anti-tumour immunity 'on demand' for oncologists in a variety of settings.

Recent progress in nanotechnology for stem cell differentiation, labeling, tracking and therapy

Nanotechnology advancements for stem cell differentiation, labeling, tracking and therapeutic applications in cardiac repair, bone, and liver regeneration are delineated.

Nanoparticles in practice for molecular-imaging applications: An overview

Nanoparticles (NPs) are playing a progressively more significant role in multimodal and multifunctional molecular imaging. The agents like Superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO), manganese oxide (MnO), gold NPs/nanorods and quantum dots (QDs) possess specific properties like paramagnetism, superparamagnetism, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and photoluminescence respectively. These specific properties make them able for single/multi-modal and single/multi-functional molecular imaging. NPs generally have nanomolar or micromolar sensitivity range and can be detected via imaging instrumentation. The distinctive characteristics of these NPs make them suitable for imaging, therapy and delivery of drugs. Multifunctional nanoparticles (MNPs) can be produced through either modification of shell or surface or by attaching an affinity ligand to the nanoparticles. They are utilized for targeted imaging by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), positron emission tomography (PET), computed tomography (CT), photo acoustic imaging (PAI), two photon or fluorescent imaging and ultra sound etc. Toxicity factor of NPs is also a very important concern and toxic effect should be eliminated. First generation NPs have been designed, developed and tested in living subjects and few of them are already in clinical use. In near future, molecular imaging will get advanced with multimodality and multifunctionality to detect diseases like cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiac diseases, inflammation, stroke, atherosclerosis and many others in their early stages. In the current review, we discussed single/multifunctional nanoparticles along with molecular imaging modalities.

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

The present article intends to reveal recent avenues for nanomaterials in multimodal and multifunctional molecular imaging through a review of pertinent literatures. The topic emphasises on the distinctive characteristics of nanomaterial which makes them, suitable for biomedical imaging, therapy and delivery of drugs. This review is more informative of indicative technologies which will be helpful in a way to plan, understand and lead the nanotechnology related work.

Direct Cytoplasmic Delivery and Nuclear Targeting Delivery of HPMA-MT Conjugates in a Microtubules Dependent Fashion

As the hearts of tumor cells, the nucleus is the ultimate target of many chemotherapeutic agents and genes. However, nuclear drug delivery is always hampered by multiple intracellular obstacles, such as low efficiency of lysosome escape and insufficient nuclear trafficking. Herein, an N-(2-hydroxypropyl) methacrylamide (HPMA) polymer-based drug delivery system was designed, which could achieve direct cytoplasmic delivery by a nonendocytic pathway and transport into the nucleus in a microtubules dependent fashion. A special targeting peptide (MT), derived from an endogenic parathyroid hormone-related protein, was conjugated to the polymer backbone, which could accumulate into the nucleus a by microtubule-mediated pathway. The in vitro studies found that low temperature and NaN3 could not influence the cell internalization of the conjugates. Besides, no obvious overlay of the conjugates with lysosome demonstrated that the polymer conjugates could enter the tumor cell cytoplasm by a nonendocytic pathway, thus avoiding the drug degradation in the lysosome. Furthermore, after suppression of the microtubule dynamics with microtubule stabilizing docetaxel (DTX) and destabilizing nocodazole (Noc), the nuclear accumulation of polymeric conjugates was significantly inhibited. Living cells fluorescence recovery after photobleaching study found that the nuclear import rate of conjugates was 2-fold faster compared with the DTX and Noc treated groups. These results demonstrated that the conjugates transported into the nucleus in a microtubules dependent way. Therefore, in addition to direct cytoplasmic delivery, our peptide conjugated polymeric platform could simultaneously mediate nuclear drug accumulation, which may open a new path for further intracellular genes/peptides delivery.

Multifunctional quantum dots-based cancer diagnostics and stem cell therapeutics for regenerative medicine

A field of recent diagnostics and therapeutics has been advanced with quantum dots (QDs). QDs have developed into new formats of biomolecular sensing to push the limits of detection in biology and medicine. QDs can be also utilized as bio-probes or labels for biological imaging of living cells and tissues. More recently, QDs has been demonstrated to construct a multifunctional nanoplatform, where the QDs serve not only as an imaging agent, but also a nanoscaffold for diagnostic and therapeutic modalities. This review highlights the promising applications of multi-functionalized QDs as advanced nanosensors for diagnosing cancer and as innovative fluorescence probes for in vitro or in vivo stem cell imaging in regenerative medicine.

Reversible activation of pH-sensitive cell penetrating peptides attached to gold surfaces

pH-sensitive viral fusion protein mimics are widely touted as a promising route towards site-specific delivery of therapeutic compounds across lipid membranes. Here, we demonstrate that a fusion protein mimic, designed to achieve a reversible, pH-driven helix-coil transition mechanism, retains its functionality when covalently bound to a surface.

A smart polymeric platform for multistage nucleus-targeted anticancer drug delivery

Tumor cell nucleus-targeted delivery of antitumor agents is of great interest in cancer therapy, since the nucleus is one of the most frequent targets of drug action. Here we report a smart polymeric conjugate platform, which utilizes stimulus-responsive strategies to achieve multistage nuclear drug delivery upon systemic administration. The conjugates composed of a backbone based on N-(2-hydroxypropyl) methacrylamide (HPMA) copolymer and detachable nucleus transport sub-units that sensitive to lysosomal enzyme. The sub-units possess a biforked structure with one end conjugated with the model drug, H1 peptide, and the other end conjugated with a novel pH-responsive targeting peptide (R8NLS) that combining the strength of cell penetrating peptide and nuclear localization sequence. The conjugates exhibited prolonged circulation time and excellent tumor homing ability. And the activation of R8NLS in acidic tumor microenvironment facilitated tissue penetration and cellular internalization. Once internalized into the cell, the sub-units were unleashed for nuclear transport through nuclear pore complex. The unique features resulted in 50-fold increase of nuclear drug accumulation relative to the original polymer-drug conjugates in vitro, and excellent in vivo nuclear drug delivery efficiency. Our report provides a strategy in systemic nuclear drug delivery by combining the microenvironment-responsive structure and detachable sub-units.

Parameters and characteristics governing cellular internalization and trans-barrier trafficking of nanostructures

Cellular internalization and trans-barrier transport of nanoparticles can be manipulated on the basis of the physicochemical and mechanical characteristics of nanoparticles. Research has shown that these factors significantly influence the uptake of nanoparticles. Dictating these characteristics allows for the control of the rate and extent of cellular uptake, as well as delivering the drug-loaded nanosystem intra-cellularly, which is imperative for drugs that require a specific cellular level to exert their effects. Additionally, physicochemical characteristics of the nanoparticles should be optimal for the nanosystem to bypass the natural restricting phenomena of the body and act therapeutically at the targeted site. The factors at the focal point of emerging smart nanomedicines include nanoparticle size, surface charge, shape, hydrophobicity, surface chemistry, and even protein and ligand conjugates. Hence, this review discusses the mechanism of internalization of nanoparticles and ideal nanoparticle characteristics that allow them to evade the biological barriers in order to achieve optimal cellular uptake in different organ systems. Identifying these parameters assists with the progression of nanomedicine as an outstanding vector of pharmaceuticals.

The effect of quantum dot size and poly(ethylenimine) coating on the efficiency of gene delivery into human mesenchymal stem cells

Quantum dot (QDs) have been employed as bioimaging agents and delivery vehicles for gene therapeutics in several types of cells. In this study, we fabricated multiple QD bundled nanoparticles (NPs) to investigate the effect of QD size and poly(ethylenimine) (PEI) coating on the efficiency of gene delivery into human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). Several types of QDs, which exhibit different ranges of particle size and fluorescence when employed, were coated with PEI to alter their negative charges and to enable them to be bundled into larger particles. Using specific wavelengths of QDs for bioimaging, gene-complexed QD bundled NPs were easily detected in the hMSCs using several different methods such as fluorescence-activated cell sorter, confocal laser scanning microscopy, and in vivo optical imaging. These PEI-coated, bundled QD NPs exhibited significantly higher gene transfection efficacy than single-type QDs. Particularly, the largest QD bundled NPs examined, QD655, had a much higher uptake capability and greater gene expression ability than the other QD NPs (QD525, QD565, and QD605). We believe that our findings help to enrich knowledge of design considerations that will aid in the engineering of QD NPs for stem cell application in the future.