Erythrocyte leveraged chemotherapy (ELeCt): Nanoparticle assembly on erythrocyte surface to combat lung metastasis

Drug nanoparticles hitchhike on erythrocytes to target chemotherapy to the lungs for treating metastasis. Despite being the mainstay of cancer treatment, chemotherapy has shown limited efficacy for the treatment of lung metastasis due to ineffective targeting and poor tumor accumulation. Here, we report a highly effective erythrocyte leveraged chemotherapy (ELeCt) platform, consisting of biodegradable drug nanoparticles assembled onto the surface of erythrocytes, to enable chemotherapy for lung metastasis treatment. The ELeCt platform significantly extended the circulation time of the drug nanoparticles and delivered 10-fold higher drug content to the lung compared with the free nanoparticles. In both the early- and late-stage melanoma lung metastasis models, the ELeCt platform enabled substantial inhibition of tumor growth that resulted in significant improvement of survival. Further, the ELeCt platform can be used to deliver numerous approved chemotherapeutic drugs. Together, the findings suggest that the ELeCt platform offers a versatile strategy to enable chemotherapy for effective lung metastasis treatment.