Engineered red blood cells as therapeutic agents

Engineered red blood cells as carriers for systemic delivery of a wide array of functional probes.

We developed modified RBCs to serve as carriers for systemic delivery of a wide array of payloads. These RBCs contain modified proteins on their plasma membrane, which can be labeled in a sortase-catalyzed reaction under native conditions without inflicting damage to the target membrane or cell. Sortase accommodates a wide range of natural and synthetic payloads that allow modification of RBCs ...

Dendritic cells as therapeutic agents against cancer.

Dendritic cells (DC) are antigen-presenting cells whose immunobiology has been proven to be central to the function of the immune system. Further understanding of these cells is leading the way to the manipulation of the immune system as a tool to cure and prevent a vast array of diseases including cancers. These cells have been used in trials as vaccine adjuvants in therapies that aim to break...

Extravascular red blood cells and hemoglobin promote tumor growth and therapeutic resistance as endogenous danger signals.

Hemorrhage is a common clinical manifestation in patients with cancer. Intratumor hemorrhage has been demonstrated to be a poor prognostic factor for cancer patients. In this study, we investigated the role of RBCs and hemoglobin (Hb) in the process of tumor progression and therapeutical response. RBCs and Hb potently promoted tumor cell proliferation and syngenic tumor growth. RBCs and Hb acti...

Bio-engineered and native red blood cells from cord blood exhibit the same metabolomic profile.

Mushrooms as therapeutic agents

Mushrooms have been known for their nutritional and culinary values and used as medicines and tonics by humans for ages. In modern terms, they can be considered as functional foods which can provide health benefits beyond the traditional nutrients. There are monographs that cover the medicinal and healing properties of some individual traditional mushrooms. There has been a recent upsurge of in...