Camouflaging Nanoparticles with Brain Metastatic Tumor Cell Membranes: A New Strategy to Traverse Blood-Brain Barrier for Imaging and Therapy of Brain Tumors

Glioblastoma multiforme is one of the most fatal intracranial tumors with no effective treatment. The drug concentration in tumor sites is usually insufficient to reach therapeutic levels, due to poor blood-brain-barrier (BBB) permeability and short biological half-life. Inspired by the proneness of those malignant tumors to brain metastasis, a brain metastatic tumor cell membrane-coated nanocarrier with core-shell structure is constructed to cross BBB for imaging and photothermal therapy of early brain tumors. The cell membranes as the shell are extracted from different metastatic tumor cells, which endow the nanoparticles with BBB-crossing ability and long circulation. Indocyanine green (ICG)-loaded polymeric nanoparticle as the core allows fluorescence imaging and phototherapy of brain tumors. The as-prepared biomimetic nanoparticles display superb BBB penetration and effective suppression of tumor growth. These findings suggest the biomimetic nanotechnology provides a new insight for the design of BBB-crossing nanomaterials and is promising to treat brain diseases.