Gibson Group News
Selectively targetting cancerous cells with nanoparticles by glycan metabolic labelling
We have a large program to explore the use of glycans for sensing and delivery applications. All mammalian cells are covered with glycans (the glycocalyx) which is responsible for a huge range of roles, from signalling to sites for pathogen-binding. We have previously explored how we can use metabolic oligosaccharide engineering to install non-natural glycans (sugars) onto cell surfaces, allowing us to 'do chemistry' on the cell surface in a bio-orthogonal manner. In this work, led by Prof Ben Boyd (Monash University), we explore how different cell types take up and display a cyclo-alkene (suitable for 'click' chemistry) bearing glycan, and use these differences to capture nanoparticles (with azides) onto the surface of the cells, leading to internalisation. Cells with the fastest growth rate processed the glycan faster, and hence lead to more nanoparticle capture. As cancerous cells are often characterized by increased metabolic rates, this may offer an opportunity to improve the targetting of nano-therapeutics by the highly selective formation of a covalent bond, rather than relying on unspecific physicochemical properties or targetting ligands.
Read the work here!