ARMOR: Auto‐Assembled Resilient Biomimetic Calcified Ornaments for Selective Cell Protection by Dual‐Aptamer‐Driven Hybridization Chain Reaction

Abstract

Unlike plant and microbial cells having cell walls, the outermost layer of mammalian cell is a delicate, two‐layered structure of phospholipids with proteins embedded, which is susceptible to environmental changes. It is necessary to create an “armor” on cell surface to protect cell integrity. Here, we propose an Auto‐assembled Resilient bioMimetic calcified ORnaments (ARMOR) strategy driven by dual‐aptamer‐based hybridization chain reaction (HCR) and Ca2+ assisted calcification for selective cell protection. This co‐recognition design enhances the selectivity and leverages robust in situ signal amplification by HCR to improve the sensitivity. The calcified shell is cogenerated by crosslinking the alginate‐HCR product with Ca2+ ion. ARMOR has high efficiency for shielding cells from environmental assaults, which can be applied to circulating tumor cell (CTC) protection, isolation, and identification, maintaining the native state and intact genetic information for downstream analysis.

Synthetic Cell Armor Made of DNA Origami

“…12−15 For example, using hybrid chain reaction (HCR) and polymerization, cross-linking networks are constructed on cell membranes for cell protection and the manipulation of cell−cell interactions. 12,14,15 While these approaches have successfully achieved biocompatible and effective cell encapsulation, demonstrating promising potential in cell delivery, manipulation, and identification, there has been limited exploration of the impact of encapsulation coating on cell membranes. For example, previous studies have applied DNA nanostructures to coat cells for membrane deformation and sculpting.…”