Effective tumor regression has been observed with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells; however, the development of an affordable, safe, and effective CAR-T cell treatment remains a challenge. One of the major obstacles is that the suboptimal genetic modification of T cells reduces their yield and antitumor activity, necessitating the development of a next-generation T cell engineering approach. In this study, we developed a nonviral T cell nanoengineering system that allows highly efficient delivery of diverse functional nanomaterials into primary human T cells in a genetically stable and scalable manner. Our platform leverages the unique cell deformation and restoration process induced by the intrinsic inertial flow in a microchannel to create nanopores in the cellular membrane for macromolecule internalization, leading to effective transfection with high scalability and viability. The proposed approach demonstrates considerable potential as a practical alternative technique for improving the current CAR-T cell manufacturing process.
Keywords: T cell engineering; hydroporator; immunoengineering; intracellular delivery; nonviral transfection.