TCEP-based Cell Surface Coating Technology

Mild reduction of disulfides in cell surface proteins with tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine (TCEP) and subsequent thiol-maleimide conjugation was developed for cell surface engineering. This method can coat biomolecules and polymers to demonstrate the rapid formation of multicellular assembly and facilitation of cell adhesion to a polymeric scaffold. Multifunctional nanoparticles can be attached to the cell surface for tracking the administered cells and simultaneously delivering adjuvant drugs. Creative Biolabs provides various cell surface coating technologies included TCEP-based cell surface coating technology for our customers.

TCEP-based Cell Surface Coating Technology

TCEP-based cell surface coating technology is a new modification method in cell surface coating technology that included mild reduction of disulfides in cell surface protein with TCEP and subsequent thiol-maleimide conjugation. TCEP can selectively reduce disulfide bonds, but is essentially unreactive towards other functional groups in proteins and does not react with maleimide groups. A variety of cell types can be coated without any adverse effect on cell functions. The coating technology can provide therapeutic cells with a protective layer or to tag them with imaging probes and decline allogeneic host immune rejection. Hence, the incorporation of biomaterials and nanomaterials in cells has been spotlighted in cell-based therapies.

Fig.1 Cell surface modification with fluorescent dye, polymer, and nanoparticles by mild reduction using TCEP. (Kim, 2017)

Advantages of TCEP-based Cell Surface Coating Technology

TCEP-based cell surface coating technology can impart various properties of exogenous materials to cells. As this method does not require any additional stabilization and culture step and no adverse effect was observed, it is expected to be used for cell therapy using primary cells, such as cancer immunotherapy and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. An examination of surface ligands and the targeting capacity of cells will be necessary prior to practical therapeutic applications, considering the nonspecificity of the reduction process using TCEP.

Case Study of TCEP-based Cell Surface Coating Technology

• Case 1

The method for coating cell surfaces with biopolymer including chondroitin sulfate (CS) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) was applied. The biopolymers grafted onto cell surface facilitated cell clustering, cell sheet construction, and manipulation of a scaffold-cell interaction. Reduced cell surfaces could be easily modified with maleimide-conjugated chondroitin sulfate (MCS). MCS on the cell could be observed by fluorescence microscopy using fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-conjugated MCS on HeLa cells.

Based on your project needs, Creative Biolabs provides the best-quality services and most reasonable experimental strategies in TCEP-based cell surface coating technology. Please contact us for more detailed information to know how we can help.

Reference

1. Kim, H.; et al. General and Facile Coating of Single Cells via Mild Reduction. Journal of the American Chemical Society. 2017, jacs.7b08440.