Erythrocyte patch for enhanced B cell depletion therapy

  • Sci Adv. 2026 May 22;12(21):eaed3138. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aed3138.
Jiaqi Liu  1 Fengju Wang  1 Lian Li  1
Affiliations
  • 1. Key Laboratory of Drug-Targeting and Drug Delivery System of the Education Ministry and Sichuan Province, Sichuan Engineering Laboratory for Plant-Sourced Drug and Sichuan Research Center for Drug Precision Industrial Technology, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
Abstract

Dysregulated B cells are central to many hematologic malignancies and autoimmune diseases, but current B cell-targeted therapies often fail to translate binding into effective signaling. Here, we present CD20 EryPatch, a living dynamic cellular patch that co-opts natural erythrocyte processes of morphological and biological changes, enabling a dual mechanism of micrometer-scale mechanotransduction and phagocytic "tag-and-clear" for enhanced B cell depletion. CD20 EryPatches are designed to adhere to B cells and anchor on CD20 receptors across extensive cell surface areas. Their progressive discocyte-to-echinocyte transition provides deformability-driven traction, enabling localized, large-scale CD20 cross-linking that amplifies downstream Apoptosis in target B cells. Concomitant biomarker alteration on CD20 EryPatch converts it into an "eat me" tag attached to the B cell, facilitating further clearance by initiating erythrophagocytosis. This approach proves more effective than standard CD20 monoclonal antibodies in models of B cell disorders, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma, systemic lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis.

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