Journal Article

Tutorial: using nanoneedles for intracellular delivery

Aslanoglou, Stella, Mariano, Anna, Zhao, Wenting, Chiappini, Ciro, Voelcker, Nicolas H., He, Gen, Xie, Xi, Santoro, Francesca, Chen, Yaping, Tasciotti, Ennio, Mollo, Valentina, Elnathan, Roey, De Rosa, Enrica, Mu, Huanwen

2021

Overview

Intracellular delivery of advanced therapeutics, including biologicals and supramolecular agents, is complex because of the natural biological barriers that have evolved to protect the cell. Efficient delivery of therapeutic nucleic acids, proteins, peptides and nanoparticles is crucial for clinical adoption of emerging technologies that can benefit disease treatment through gene and cell therapy. Nanoneedles are arrays of vertical high-aspect-ratio nanostructures that can precisely manipulate complex processes at the cell interface, enabling effective intracellular delivery. This emerging technology has already enabled the development of efficient and non-destructive routes for direct access to intracellular environments and delivery of cell-impermeant payloads. However, successful implementation of this technology requires knowledge of several scientific fields, making it complex to access and adopt by researchers who are not directly involved in developing nanoneedle platforms. This presents an obstacle to the widespread adoption of nanoneedle technologies for drug delivery. This tutorial aims to equip researchers with the knowledge required to develop a nanoinjection workflow. It discusses the selection of nanoneedle devices, approaches for cargo loading and strategies for interfacing to biological systems and summarises an array of bioassays that can be used to evaluate the efficacy of intracellular delivery. This tutorial describes how to develop a nanoinjection workflow, including the selection of nanoneedle devices, approaches to loading cargo, strategies for interfacing to biological systems and assays to evaluate the efficacy of intracellular delivery.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: 631/1647/2300 / 631/61/350/2093 / 631/61/350/2251 / 639/925/927 / Analytical Chemistry / Animals / Arrays / Bioassays / Biological products / Biological Techniques / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Cell therapy / Cellular therapy / Computational Biology/Bioinformatics / Drug delivery / Drug delivery systems / Drug Delivery Systems - methods / Drugs / Efficiency / Genetic engineering / High aspect ratio / Humans / Interfaces / Intracellular / Laboratories / Life Sciences / Medical research / Medical treatment / Methods / Microarrays / Molecular targeted therapy / Nanoparticles / Nanostructures - chemistry / Nanotechnology / Nanotechnology - methods / Nanowires / New technology / Nucleic acids / Organic Chemistry / Payloads / Peptides / Plasmids / Proteins / Review Article / Systems analysis / Vehicles / Workflow