Plant cell–inspired drug delivery system
Natural plant cells are excellent drug delivery systems, but they are not straightforward to load. Newly designed synthetic plant cells developed by researchers at KTH may solve this conundrum.
“With our systems, we mimic the natural plant cells, but the synthetic plant cells are more flexible, as they can be loaded with different compounds,” Anran Mao , researcher in the Division of Polymeric Materials, says.
Plant cells represent smart cargo carriers with great potential for oral drug delivery applications. However, they are limited to delivering pharmaceutical proteins and involve complex genetic modification of plants. In a recent study published in Science Advances, researchers led by Associate Professor Anna Svagan at KTH, in collaboration with the Technical University of Denmark, engineered a delivery system from synthetic plant cells, termed Plantosomes. The system was made from renewable resources, mimicking the cell wall and plasma membrane structure of plants.
“Our bioinspired system offers greater flexibility for encapsulating non-protein compounds and nanoparticles. The two barriers respond differently to external stimuli in a simulated gastrointestinal medium, resulting in size-dependent dual-triggered release mechanisms,” Mao says.
Difficult to design
In short, it is difficult to design oral drug delivery systems to release their content at the right time and place in the human digestive system. Targeting the colon — the remotest part of the gastrointestinal tract — is particularly challenging. Plant cells naturally consist of a protective cell wall and plasma membrane. Taking inspiration from this, Anran Mao and her colleagues explored the use of forest-derived materials such as cellulose nanofibres and pectin to design a drug delivery system for targeted release in the colon.
“By using bioinspired components, we created a versatile platform capable of delivering a wide range of therapeutics to the small intestine and colon,” Anna Svagan says.
The next step for Mao and her co-authors is to validate the efficacy of Plantosomes through animal studies. Additionally, they intend to conduct disease-specific research, particularly in models of inflammatory bowel disease, to investigate therapeutic effects and further evaluate the potential of synthetic plant cells in treating colonic disorders.
“Developing new drug delivery systems is just as important as developing new drugs. Our results open up avenues for developing the next generation of bioinspired oral delivery systems for multisite-specific gastrointestinal release in a low-cost and sustainable manner,” Mao says.
Text: Jon Lindhe ( jlindhe@kth.se )