膜融合介导的肿瘤细胞表面聚糖多重工程化增强 NK 细胞治疗

Natural killer (NK) cell therapies show potential for tumor treatment but are immunologically resisted by the overexpressed immunosuppressing tumor cell surface glycans. To reverse this glycan-mediated immunosuppression, the surface NK-inhibitory glycan expressions need to be downregulated and NK-activating glycan levels should be elevated synchronously with optimal efficiency.

Here, a core-shell membrane-fusogenic liposome (MFL) is designed to simultaneously achieve the physical modification of NK-activating glycans and biological inhibition of immunosuppressing glycans on the tumor cell surface via a membrane-fusion manner. Loaded into a tumor-microenvironment-triggered-degradable thermosensitive hydrogel, MFLs could be conveniently injected and controllably released into local tumor. Through fusion with tumor cell membrane, the released MFLs could simultaneously deliver sialyltransferase-inhibitor-loaded core into cytoplasm, and anchor NK-activating-glycan-modified shell onto tumor surface.

This spatially-differential distribution of core and shell in one cell ensures the effective inhibition of intracellular sialyltransferase to downregulate immunosuppressing sialic acid, and direct presentation of NK-activating Lewis X trisaccharide (LeX) on tumor surface simultaneously.

Consequentially, the sialic acid-caused immunosuppression of tumor surface is reprogrammed to be LeX-induced NK activation, resulting in sensitive susceptibility to NK-cell-mediated recognition and lysis for improved tumor elimination. This MFL provides a novel platform for multiplex cell engineering and personalized regulation of intercellular interactions for enhanced cancer immunotherapy.