Nanoparticle‐Laden Macrophages for Tumor‐Tropic Drug Delivery

Abstract

Macrophages hold great potential in cancer drug delivery because they can sense chemotactic cues and home to tumors with high efficiency. However, it remains a challenge to load large amounts of therapeutics into macrophages without compromising cell functions. Here we report a silica-based drug nanocapsule approach to solve this issue. Our nanocapsule consists of a drug-silica complex filling and a solid silica sheath, and it is designed to minimally release drug molecules in the early hours of cell entry. While taken up by macrophages at high rates, the nanocapsules minimally affect cell migration in the first 6–12 h, buying time for macrophages to home to tumors and release drugs in situ. In particular, we show that doxorubicin (Dox) as a representative drug can be loaded into macrophages up to 16.6 pg/cell using this approach. When tested in a U87MG xenograft model, intravenously (i.v.) injected Dox-laden macrophages show comparable tumor accumulation as untreated macrophages. Therapy leads to efficient tumor growth suppression, while causing little systematic toxicity. Our study suggests a new cell platform for selective drug delivery, which can be readily extended to the treatment of other types of diseases.

Ultra-small bimetallic iron–palladium (FePd) nanoparticle loaded macrophages for targeted tumor photothermal therapy in NIR-II biowindows and magnetic resonance imaging

“…Macrophages have been proven as an excellent nanoparticles carrier with small side effects and good tumor targeting. [29][30][31][32] FePd NPs loaded macrophages (FePd@M) can be targeted to the tumor site, which also greatly increased the accumulation of nanoparticles in the tumor site. Compared with the control group and exposed nanoparticles, FePd@M showed a stronger photothermal treatment effect (about 90% of tumors are ablated) and better nuclear magnetic imaging.…”

Engineering Biomimetic Platesomes for pH‐Responsive Drug Delivery and Enhanced Antitumor Activity

“…With increasing reports on the potential of biomimetic drug carriers, more recent research has been focused on their functionality . Another attractive aspect of the use of cell membranes as surface coatings is the fact that they can effectively inherit proteins or other biologically active molecules from their source and “mimic” the source cells' characteristic activities in vivo .…”

Direct Transfer of Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles between Macrophages and Cancer Cells

“…As stated previously, rapid internalization of nanoparticles by macrophages and trafficking to sites of inflammation has led to reports of macrophages functioning as cell-based drug carriers [ 49 , 50 , 51 ]. Zhang et al reported that silica-based nano capsules loaded with doxorubicin can be loaded into macrophages with minimal drug release in the first hours after uptake and minimal effect on in vivo cell migration to tumors [ 52 ]. In further support of targeting macrophages as drug and nanocarriers, here we studied the intercellular transfer of doxorubicin between macrophages using a second macrophage-like cell line, murine J774A.1.…”