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Microfluidic Droplet-Facilitated Hierarchical Assembly for Dual Cargo Loading and Synergistic Delivery.

ABSTRACT: Bottom-up hierarchical assembly has emerged as an elaborate and energy-efficient strategy for the fabrication of smart materials. Herein, we present a hierarchical assembly process, whereby linear amphiphilic block copolymers are self-assembled into micelles, which in turn are accommodated at the interface of microfluidic droplets via cucurbit[8]uril-mediated host-guest chemistry to form supramolecular microcapsules. The monodisperse microcapsules can be used for simultaneous carriage of both organic (Nile Red) and aqueous-soluble (fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran) cargo. Furthermore, the well-defined compartmentalized structure benefits from the dynamic nature of the supramolecular interaction and offers synergistic delivery of cargos with triggered release or through photocontrolled porosity. This demonstration of premeditated hierarchical assembly, where interactions from the molecular to microscale are designed, illustrates the power of this route toward accessing the next generation of functional materials and encapsulation strategies.

SUBMITTER: Yu Z

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4838949 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Extracellular vesicles (EVs) mediate intercellular communication through transfer of RNA and protein between cells. Thus, understanding how cargo molecules are loaded and delivered by EVs is of central importance for elucidating the biological roles of EVs and developing EV-based therapeutics. While some motifs modulating the loading of biomolecular cargo into EVs have been elucidated, the general rules governing cargo loading and delivery remain poorly understood. To investigate how general biophysical properties impact loading and delivery of RNA by EVs, we developed a platform for actively loading engineered cargo RNAs into EVs. In our system, the MS2 bacteriophage coat protein was fused to EV-associated proteins, and the cognate MS2 stem loop was engineered into cargo RNAs. Using this Targeted and Modular EV Loading (TAMEL) approach, we identified a configuration that substantially enhanced cargo RNA loading (up to 6-fold) into EVs. When applied to vesicles expressing the vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein (VSVG) - gesicles - we observed a 40-fold enrichment in cargo RNA loading. While active loading of mRNA-length (>1.5 kb) cargo molecules was possible, active loading was much more efficient for smaller (~0.5 kb) RNA molecules. We next leveraged the TAMEL platform to elucidate the limiting steps in EV-mediated delivery of mRNA and protein to prostate cancer cells, as a model system. Overall, most cargo was rapidly degraded in recipient cells, despite high EV-loading efficiencies and substantial EV uptake by recipient cells. While gesicles were efficiently internalized via a VSVG-mediated mechanism, most cargo molecules were rapidly degraded. Thus, in this model system, inefficient endosomal fusion or escape likely represents a limiting barrier to EV-mediated transfer. Altogether, the TAMEL platform enabled a comparative analysis elucidating a key opportunity for enhancing EV-mediated delivery to prostate cancer cells, and this technology should be of general utility for investigations and applications of EV-mediated transfer in other systems.

Dataset Information

Microfluidic Droplet-Facilitated Hierarchical Assembly for Dual Cargo Loading and Synergistic Delivery.

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