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Abstract
Cell membrane coating has emerged as an intriguing biomimetic strategy to endow nanomaterials
with functions and properties inherent to source cells for various biomedical applications.
Hybrid membrane of different types of cells could be coated onto nanoparticle surface
to achieve additional functions. Herein, we fused red blood cell (RBC) membrane together
with MCF-7 cell membrane and fabricated an erythrocyte-cancer (RBC-M) hybrid membrane-camouflaged
melanin nanoparticle (Melanin@RBC-M) platform for enhancing therapeutic efficacy of
photothermal therapy (PTT). The fused RBC-M hybrid membrane vesicles retained both
RBC and MCF-7 cell membrane proteins and the resultant Melanin@RBC-M exhibited prolonged
blood circulation and homotypic targeting to source MCF-7 cells simultaneously. Interestingly,
increasing MCF-7 membrane components in RBC-M significantly enhanced the homotypic
targeting function of Melanin@RBC-M while increasing RBC membrane components in RBC-M
effectively reduced the cellular uptake of Melanin@RBC-M by macrophages and improved
their circulation time in the blood. After intravenous injection into MCF-7 tumor-bearing
athymic nude mice, Melanin@RBC-M with 1:1 membrane protein weight ratio of RBC to
MCF-7 exhibited significantly higher tumor accumulation and better PTT efficacy compared
with other Melanin@RBC-M with different membrane protein weight ratios as well as
pristine melanin nanoparticles, due to the optimal balance between prolonged blood
circulation and homotypic targeting. In addition, in vitro photoacoustic results revealed
that Melanin@RBC-M had a photoacoustic signal enhancement with the increase of nanoparticle
size (64 → 148 nm) and the photoacoustic amplitudes increased linearly with nanoparticle
concentration at the excitation wavelength ranged from 680 nm to 800 nm, which could
be used for quantification of Melanin@RBC-M in vivo. Looking forward, coating hybrid
membrane onto nanoparticles could add flexibility and controllability in enhancing
nanoparticles functionality and offer new opportunities for biomedical applications.