Immune Cell-Mediated Intercellular Delivery Of Biomolecules

Patent Status

Patent Pending

Brief Description

The targeted intracellular delivery of protein cargos is critical for therapeutic applications such as enzyme inhibition, transcriptional modulation, and genome editing. For most tissues, the delivery of these molecules must occur in-vivo. This has historically been achieved using viral vectors or lipid nanoparticles. While significant progress has been made in engineering the tropisms of these particles towards different tissues, delivery specificity and packaging limits remain challenging.

UC Berkeley researchers have developed engineered immune cells that produce and intercellularly transfer a protein and/or RNA cargo in response to contact with a predetermined antigen. Proof of concept experiments demonstrated that production of EDVs can be induced in a T cell line through either the presence of a small molecule or recognition by the T cells of a specific antigen on co-cultured cells. The researchers showed that delivery can be achieved using multiple strategies and that the system is compatible with multiple cargo proteins of interest, including Cre recombinase and S.pyogenes Cas9. 

Suggested uses

• cell therapies with intracellular delivery of RNA and/or protein
• cancer therapeutics