Pathogen‐Mimetic Liposomes Customizing Protein Corona for Precision Glioblastoma Therapy
Employing neutrophils (NEs) as endogenous moving gears offers a promising strategy for crossing the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) malignancies such as glioblastoma (GBM). However, in vivo hitchhiking efficiency of NEs is severely limited by spontaneous formation of a nonspecific protein corona. Here, we present pathogen-mimetic liposomes (PM-Lipo) that enable efficient and precise NEs hitchhiking by programming the in vivo protein corona. PM-Lipo is rationally engineered to preferentially enrich complement 3b (C3b) and inactivated C3b (iC3b), thereby recapitulating endogenous complement opsonization and promoting complement receptor 3 (CR3)-mediated recognition by activated NEs. This effect arises from the synergistic integration of two functional lipids that activate distinct complement pathways, triggering a proteolytic cascade with positive feedback to amplify C3b/iC3b deposition. Our results demonstrate that PM-Lipo achieved >85% targeting efficiency toward activated NEs, enabling hitchhiking-mediated transport across the BBB, with 8.94% of the administered PM-Lipo successfully penetrating the brain, leading to marked tumor suppression and more than a twofold extension in median survival. Our research establishes a protein corona programming strategy to harness endogenous immune cells for targeted drug delivery, offering a broadly applicable paradigm for precision nanomedicine in CNS malignancies.
Authors
- Zhanzhan Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-0659-0125)
- Fan Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9029-8805)
- Shao‐Kai Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6136-9969)
- Yang Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5752-5180)
- Jingyu Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-0989-6593)
- Yong Ke
- Xi Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-9643-0517)
- Xinyi Cai
- Ying Wang
- Shuangxiu Li
- Yu Zhang
Institutions
- Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College (CN)
- Nankai University (CN)
- Tianjin Medical University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Materials
- Published
- 2026-08-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.74780
- Primary Topic
- Nanoparticle-Based Drug Delivery
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00