Living Cells For Drug Delivery

Pyroptosis is a form of programed cell death, characterized by pore formation, membrane rupture and release of cellular contents. Recent outcomes revealed that light-induced ROS (i.e., reactive oxygen species) generation is capable of triggering cell pyroptosis. As demonstrated in our recent work, we took advantage of the pore formation and cellular content release of pyroptotic cells in combination of chemo-photodynamic effect from a light-activated prodrug to turn macrophages into drug carriers for targeted cancer therapy. On this basis, our group will continue to engineer other pyroptosis-active and targeting-specific cells and exploit loading of different drug candidates and combinations for targeted phototherapy.