Membrane Fusion-Mediated Cytosolic Delivery of Threose Nucleic Acids via Homotypic Nanoparticles Overcomes Drug Resistance in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

  • Adv Sci (Weinh). 2026 Jun 12:e76100. doi: 10.1002/advs.76100.
Wei Zheng  1 Tristan Juin Han Chang  1 Xinchao Li  1 Zhongqi Zhou  1 Chung Tin  2 Kenward Vong  3 Pierre Karam  4 Pik Kwan Lo  1  5  6
Affiliations
  • 1. Department of Chemistry and State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Health, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, China.
  • 2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, China.
  • 3. Department of Chemistry, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
  • 4. Department of Chemistry, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
  • 5. City University of Hong Kong Chengdu Research Institute, Chengdu, China.
  • 6. Key Laboratory of Biochip Technology, Biotech and Health Care, Shenzhen Research Institute of City University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China.
Abstract

Triple-negative breast Cancer (TNBC) remains lethal due to its aggressive molecular heterogeneity and drug resistance. We report a biomimetic nanoplatform (PLL/TNAAkt2@CM NPs) integrating biostable threose nucleic acid (TNA) with a donor-derived cell membranes (CMs) "cloak" for subtype-specific therapy. By complexing TNAAkt2 Antisense Oligonucleotides with poly-L-lysine (PLL) and coating them with TNBS-subtype membranes (MDA-MB-468 or MDA-MB-231), we achieve potent homotypic affinity. PLL/TNAAkt2@468CM NPs exhibited significant enhanced uptake in donor-matched basal-like 1 cells compared to heterotypic TNBC, non-TNBC and normal epithelial cells. Mechanistically, these nanoparticles internalize via a rapid membrane-fusion, bypassing endosomal entrapment for direct cytosolic delivery. This facilitates robust silencing of the Akt2 oncogene, achieving a ∼70% protein knockdown and outperforming conventional transfection reagents. In a drug-resistant MDA-MB-468 xenografts, systemic administration led to superior tumor accumulation, effective Akt2 knockdown, and significant tumor regression via the p21/Caspase-3 apoptotic axis, without systemic toxicity. This versatile "plug-and-play" strategy addresses tumor heterogeneity and endosomal sequestration, providing a transformative paradigm for targeted nucleic acid delivery in refractory cancers.

Keywords
TNA; biomimetic; drug resistance; homotypic; membrane fusion.
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