A unique robotic medical platform is designed by utilizing cell robots as the active "Trojan horse" of oncolytic adenovirus (OA), capable of tumor-selective binding and killing. The OA-loaded cell robots are fabricated by entirely modifying OA-infected 293T cells with cyclic arginine-glycine-aspartic acid tripeptide (cRGD) to specifically bind with bladder cancer cells, followed by asymmetric immobilization of Fe3 O4 nanoparticles (NPs) on the cell surface. OA can replicate in host cells and induce cytolysis to release the virus progeny to the surrounding tumor sites for sustainable infection and oncolysis. The asymmetric coating of magnetic NPs bestows the cell robots with effective movement in various media and wireless manipulation with directional migration in a microfluidic device and bladder mold under magnetic control, further enabling steerable movement and prolonged retention of cell robots in the mouse bladder. The biorecognition of cRGD and robust, controllable propulsion of cell robots work synergistically to greatly enhance their tissue penetration and anticancer efficacy in the 3D cancer spheroid and orthotopic mouse bladder tumor model. Overall, this study integrates cell-based microrobots with virotherapy to generate an attractive robotic system with tumor specificity, expanding the operation scope of cell robots in biomedical community.
Keywords: bladder cancer; cell-based microrobots; magnetic propulsion; oncolytic adenovirus; virotherapy.
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