Introduction of exogenous biomacromolecules into living systems is of great interest in genome editing, cancer immunotherapy, and stem cell reprogramming. Whereas current strategies generally depend on nucleic acids transfection, direct delivery of functional proteins that provides enhanced specificity, increased safety, and fast and temporal regulation is highly desirable. Nevertheless, intracellular delivery of intact and bioactive proteins, especially in vivo, remains poorly explored. In this study, we developed a nanodiamonds (NDs)-based protein delivery system in cultured cells and in Drosophila that showed high adsorption, high efficiency, and effective cytosolic release of fully functional proteins. Through live-cell imaging, we observed a novel phenomenon wherein a substantial amount of internalized NDs-protein complex rejected fusion with the early endosome, thereby evading protein degradation in the lysosome. More significantly, we demonstrated that dietary NDs-RNase induced apoptosis in enterocytes, stimulating regenerative divisions in intestinal stem cells and increasing the number of stem cells and precursor cells in Drosophila intestine. As stem cells are poorly accessible by exogenous agents in vivo, NDs-mediated oral delivery of proteins provides a new approach to modulate the stem cell microenvironment for intestinal remodeling, which has important implications for colorectal cancer therapy and regenerative medicine.
Keywords: intestinal remodeling; nanodiamonds; oral delivery; protein delivery; stem cells microenvironment.