Engineering Macrophage Membrane as Drug Carriers

Macrophage membrane coated nanoparticles (NPs) exhibit a thin layer on the surface, a slightly larger size, and a negatively charged surface zeta potential and contain membrane proteins derived from macrophages. Macrophage membrane-mediated drug delivery systems are being paid more and more attention. Research scientists at Creative Biolabs are experts in engineering macrophage membrane as drug carriers and are happy to assist clients based on their requirements. Creative Biolabs provides efficiencies with shorter timelines to accelerate our clients' project development.

Background of Macrophage Membrane-mediated Drug Delivery

In recent years, cell membrane coating nanotechnology has emerged as a promising therapeutic platform. By fusing natural cell membranes onto synthetic NPs, these NPs inherit the specific biological functions of the source cells, such as long circulation and disease-relevant targeting. Macrophages are large and highly versatile white blood cells that intrinsically work as major cellular effectors in inflammatory and tissue repair processes. There are about 1000 types of proteins in the macrophage membrane, many of which recognize specific inflammatory factors and tumor cells and play an important role in biological function. In previous studies, macrophage membrane-coated NPs have demonstrated high targeted delivery efficiency as well as decent therapeutic efficacy to various inflammatory diseases. Macrophage membrane-coated nanoparticles have been developed for tumor-targeted chemotherapy delivery with a controlled release profile in response to tumor microenvironment stimuli. Upon fulfilling its mission of tumor homing and reticuloendothelial system (RES) clearance, the macrophage membrane coating can be shed via morphological changes driven by extracellular microenvironment stimuli. The NPs discharged from the outer membrane coating show penetration efficiency enhanced by their size advantage and surface modifications. Therefore, macrophage membrane-mediated drug delivery systems combine the drug core with the macrophage membrane, which not only compensates for the rapid clearance of drugs in vivo, but also exploits the functional properties of the membrane.

Fig.1 Macrophage membrane-coated poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) NPs loaded with RAP. (Wang, 2021)

Engineering Macrophage-Membrane as Drug Carriers at Creative Biolabs

Creative Biolabs has organized a staff of outstanding scientists who have engaged in Macrophage Engineering Service for Drug Delivery for many years. We are well equipped and versed in engineering macrophage membrane coating with drug or drug-loaded NPs.

To ensure the resulting drug delivery system acquires macrophage properties, during the extraction and purification of the membranes, the structure and activity of these membrane proteins must be maintained. In the extraction process, a combination of hypo-osmotic swelling, mechanical destruction, and several gradient centrifugation steps to remove unruptured cells and cell contents is needed. Moreover, protease inhibitors are required to prevent the degradation of membrane proteins and the entire process should be handled at low temperature. Then, by employing ultrasonication or multiple mechanical extrusions, the membranes are wrapped onto the surface of drug-loaded NPs. Finally, transmission electron microscop (TEM) is used to observe the spherical core-shell structure.

Advantages of Macrophage Membrane Coated Nanoparticles

• Generally exhibiting longer blood circulation and higher tumor accumulation
• Further enhancing the drug delivery efficiency
• Enabling NPs with tumor-metastasis-targeting properties
• Even crossing the blood-brain barrier (BBB)

Creative Biolabs is glad to serve our global clients with professionalism and expertise in engineering macrophage membrane as drug carriers. We continue to serve our global collaborators and clients with professionalism and expertise in this field. For more detailed information, please feel free to contact us or send us your inquiry or question.

References

1. Tang, W.; et al. Macrophage membrane-mediated targeted drug delivery for treatment of spinal cord injury regardless of the macrophage polarization states. Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. 2021.
2. Wang, Y.; et al. Macrophage membrane functionalized biomimetic nanoparticles for targeted anti-atherosclerosis applications. Theranostics. 2021, 11(1):164.