Cell-based therapy for Parkinson's disease (PD) is a novel and promising approach in recent years. However, exogenous cells are easy to be captured and destroyed by the harsh environment in vivo, so their application prospects have been severely limited. Here, a facile yet versatile approach for decorating individual living cells with nano-armor coatings is reported. By simply self-assembly with liposome under a cyto-compatible condition, the lipid bimolecular coating on the surface of each cell acts as armor to effectively protect it from the attack and destruction of strong acids and digestive enzymes during the oral treatment of PD. Our results demonstrated that the liposome coated B. adolescentis (LCB) could significantly improve the colonization rate in the intestinal tract. LCB, as a living cell factory, can self-regulate to produce a constant concentration of γ-aminobutyric acid and maintain a longer half-life for the treatment of PD. Then, we also explored the specific mechanism of LCB to improve the behavior of murine models of PD, including abating inflammatory effects, reducing neuronal apoptosis, regulating the activity of dopaminergic neurons and microglia. The simple nano-armor shielded single-cell factory can produce neurotransmitters-like drugs on demand in vivo, introducing novel strategies of integration of producing and using to the research of drug delivery field.
Keywords: Drug delivery; Nano-armor; Oral medication; Parkinson's disease (PD); Single-cell factory; γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA).
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