Ayer Maxime, Schuster Markus, Gruber Isabelle, Blatti Claudia, Kaba Elisa, Enzmann Gaby, Burri Olivier, Guiet Romain, Seitz Arne, Engelhardt Britta, Klok Harm-Anton
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institut des Matériaux and Institut des Sciences et Ingénierie Chimiques, Laboratoire des Polymères, Bâtiment MXD, Station 12, Lausanne, CH-1015, Switzerland.
Theodor Kocher Institute, University of Bern, Freiestrasse 1, Bern, CH-3012, Switzerland.
Adv Healthc Mater. 2021 Jan;10(2):e2001375. doi: 10.1002/adhm.202001375. Epub 2020 Nov 25.
Delivery of therapeutics to the central nervous system (CNS) is challenging due to the presence of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Amongst various approaches that have been explored to facilitate drug delivery to the CNS, the use of cells that have the intrinsic ability to cross the BBB is relatively unexplored, yet very attractive. This paper presents a first proof-of-concept that demonstrates the feasibility of activated effector/memory CD4 helper T cells (CD4 T cells) as carriers for the delivery of polymer nanoparticles across the BBB. This study shows that CD4 T cells can be decorated with poly(ethylene glycol)-modified polystyrene nanoparticles using thiol-maleimide coupling chemistry, resulting in the immobilization of ≈105 nanoparticles per cell as determined by confocal microscopy. The ability of these cells to serve as carriers to transport nanoparticles across the BBB is established in vitro and in vivo. Using in vitro BBB models, CD4 T cells are found to be able to transport nanoparticles across the BBB both under static conditions as well as under physiological flow. Finally, upon systemic administration, nanoparticle-modified T cells are shown to enter the brain parenchyma of mice, demonstrating the brain delivery potential of this T cell subset in allogeneic hosts.
由于血脑屏障(BBB)的存在,将治疗药物递送至中枢神经系统(CNS)具有挑战性。在为促进药物向CNS递送而探索的各种方法中,利用具有穿越血脑屏障内在能力的细胞这一方法相对未被充分研究,但却非常有吸引力。本文首次提供了概念验证,证明活化的效应/记忆CD4辅助性T细胞(CD4 T细胞)作为聚合物纳米颗粒穿越血脑屏障递送载体的可行性。本研究表明,使用硫醇-马来酰亚胺偶联化学方法,聚(乙二醇)修饰的聚苯乙烯纳米颗粒可以修饰在CD4 T细胞上,通过共聚焦显微镜测定,每个细胞可固定约105个纳米颗粒。这些细胞作为载体跨血脑屏障转运纳米颗粒的能力在体外和体内均得到证实。使用体外血脑屏障模型发现,CD4 T细胞在静态条件以及生理流动条件下均能够跨血脑屏障转运纳米颗粒。最后,经全身给药后,纳米颗粒修饰的T细胞显示可进入小鼠脑实质,证明了该T细胞亚群在同种异体宿主中的脑递送潜力。