Cells are a basic unit of living organisms and using them as drug carriers or therapeutics has unique advantages. During the past several years, we have developed a unique “supramolecular cell engineering” approach where nanomedicines are self-assembled either extracellularly or intracellularly via artificial host-guest interactions, to anchor nanomedicine either on the surface of, or inside, the cells for targeted delivery to specific tissues, e.g. driven by the inflammatory tropism of immune cells [1]. We show that the engineered cells, including macrophage, red blood cells and platelets, may efficiently deliver nanomedicine to different disease tissues and effectively treat several diseases including acute pneumonia [2] and solid tumors [3-4], as well as ischemic stroke [5]. 

Acknowledgments: These works are financially supported by the Science and Technology Development Fund of Macau SAR and University of Macau.

References:
[1] Gao, C.; Wang, R. et al, Nat. Commun. 2020, 11, 2622. 
[2] Yue, L.; Wang, R. et al, Adv. Mater. 2023, 35, 202211626.
[3] Gao, C.; Wang, R. et al, Sci. Adv. 2022, 8, eabn1805.
[4] Xu, M.; Wang, R.; Zheng, Y. et al, Adv. Mat. 2023, 35, 2305287.
[5] Quan X.; Wang, R.; Zhao, Y. et al, ACS Nano. 2023, 17, 6519.