Scientists recruit red blood cells to deliver genetic cargo with instructions to kill cancer

Scientists have developed a way to turn the body's own immune cells into cancer-fighting agents—without removing them from the body—by using red blood cells to deliver genetic instructions. Current CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) therapies typically involve collecting a patient's T cells, genetically modifying them in the laboratory, and then reinfusing them in a process that can take weeks. The new strategy aims to bypass that step. 

In a study published in Science Translational Medicine, researchers at Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine in Hangzhou, China, report that they used engineered erythrocytes, or red blood cells, to carry messenger RNA—mRNA—that reprogrammes myeloid cells into tumor-targeting cells inside the body. 

"Engineering myeloid cells with chimeric antigen receptors—CARs—holds great therapeutic promise," writes Dr. Xiaoqian Nie, lead author of the investigation. 

"We developed an erythrocyte-mediated messenger RNA delivery platform, termed mRNA-LNP-Ery, in which mRNA-loaded lipid nanoparticles are covalently anchored onto erythrocytes." 

The approach represents a potential new direction for cancer immunotherapy, avoiding the complex and costly process of extracting and engineering cells outside the body. 

Instead, the researchers used red blood cells as delivery vehicles to transport mRNA encoding CAR constructs directly into the body. Once delivered, the genetic instructions are taken up by myeloid cells, a class of immune cells that includes macrophages, which play a central role in the tumor microenvironmen.

WAM