Erythrocytes Surface Engineering Service

Cell-based therapeutics are very promising modalities to address many unmet medical needs, including drug delivery, regenerative medicine, and bioimaging. Nowadays, cell surface engineering strategies such as non-genetic engineering have been developed to modify the surface of cells to enhance the function and improve the efficacy of cell-based therapeutics. Creative Biolabs has hugely experienced specialists who can provide expert advice on cell surface engineering and an enormous breadth of advanced conjugation technologies to meet your project demands.

Erythrocytes Surface Engineering Service

Erythrocytes, also called red blood cells (RBC), are the most abundant blood cells in the body. Due to the absence of a nucleus and some subcellular organelles, erythrocytes exhibit inherent biocompatibility, a high surface-to-volume ratio, excellent membrane flexibility, and long-circulating life in blood when used for drug delivery and other therapeutic applications. These unique merits make erythrocytes potentially as delivery carriers for many bioactive substances, such as anti-inflammatory, antiviral, anti-neurodegenerative, and anti-cancer drugs.

As a complementary approach for producing erythrocyte drug carriers, scientists at Creative Biolabs provide cell surface engineering for efficient drug loading or better efficacy without changing the morphological and functional properties of erythrocytes. Due to our extensive experience and advanced platforms, various cell surface engineering using large surface functional groups on erythrocytes (amino acids, thiol groups, sugars, and lipids) can be achieved on the erythrocyte surface to meet our customers' specific requirements. Through these tailored approaches, we maximize efficiency and bring cost-efficiencies and time-saving benefits. Various types of erythrocyte-based conjugates could be provided at Creative Biolabs, including but not limited to:

• Erythrocyte-antibody conjugate
• Erythrocyte-drug conjugate
• Erythrocyte-fluorescent protein conjugate
• Erythrocyte-nucleic acids conjugate (CNAC)
• Erythrocyte-fucose conjugate (CFC)
• Erythrocyte-peptide conjugate (CPC)
• Erythrocyte-adjuvant-loaded nanoparticles (CALNP)

Applications of Erythrocytes Surface Engineering

• Case 1

A group proceeds to successfully engineer the surface of RBC to generate a novel type of functional artificial antigen-presenting cells (APC). In their design, the surface of RBCs is first biotinylated by the reaction of sulfo-NHS-biotin and the prime amine groups on the surface of RBC. Biotinylated RBC is further reacted with streptavidin to generate the streptavidin modifying RBC. After that, biotinylated RBCs' surface is engineered with antigen peptide-loaded MHC-I and CD28 antibodies to obtain artificial APC. For the most effortless application, such an RBC-based aAPC system is a promising T cell stimulation platform.

Fig.1 RBC-based aAPC system. (Sun, 2017)

• Case 2

Another group modifies the RBC membrane to exploit the natural properties of cell membranes and to maintain the nanoparticle targeting capabilities. In their work, cell membranes are donated from RBCs, reconstructed into vesicles (RBC-vesicles), and then coated onto fluorescent upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs). Subsequently, cancer-targeting molecules are modified onto the surface of cell membrane-coated nanoparticles. Given the superior optical and chemical performances of these cell membrane-coated nanoparticles, this biomimetic platform can be employed for efficient tumor imaging with improved targeting efficiency and good biocompatibility in vivo.

Fig.2 RBC membrane-based UCNPs. (Rao, 2017)

• Case 3

Some researchers report a new strategy for glucose-responsive insulin delivery based on the erythrocyte system. The glucose derivative-modified insulin (designated Glc-Insulin) can effectively bind to the membrane of RBCs via the glucose transporter (GLUT) molecule, an abundant membrane protein on RBCs. Furthermore, this insulin-coupled RBC membrane can be coated with PLGA nanoparticles mimicking the function of pancreatic β-cells to achieve the precise control of blood glucose.

Fig.3 Insulin-coupled RBC membrane. (Wang, 2017)

With our extensive experience and advanced conjugation platform, Creative Biolabs is confident in offering the best erythrocyte surface engineering services for our global customers. We guarantee the most satisfactory results helping to accelerate your project development process. Please contact our team of experts to find out more about our cell surface engineering services.

References

1. Sun, X.; et al. Surface-engineering of red blood cells as artificial antigen presenting cells promising for cancer immunotherapy. Small. 2017, 13(40), p.1701864.
2. Rao, L.; et al. Erythrocyte membrane-coated upconversion nanoparticles with minimal protein adsorption for enhanced tumor imaging. ACS applied materials & interfaces. 2017, 9(3), pp.2159-2168.
3. Wang, C.; et al. Red blood cells for glucose‐responsive insulin delivery. Advanced Materials. 2017, 29(18), p.1606617.