Cellular determinants influence the red blood cell adsorption efficiency of poly(amine-co-ester) nanoparticles

Many poly(amine-co-ester) (PACE) nanoparticles, drug delivery vehicles for nucleic acid and small molecule cargoes, accumulate in the liver and spleen following intravenous administration, limiting delivery to nonhepatosplenic tissues. Red blood cell (RBC) hitchhiking, a strategy in which nanoparticles are nonspecifically adsorbed to RBCs prior to administration, has been used to modulate nanoparticle biodistribution, enabling enrichment in organs immediately downstream from the site of vascular infusion. We find that scarcely investigated cellular determinants-namely, storage duration, membrane stiffness, and membrane-bound sialic acid quantity-substantially affect PACE nanoparticle adsorption efficiency. Following development of an optimized adsorption protocol, RBC hitchhiking was shown to enhance PACE nanoparticle cargo delivery to pulmonary tissue while also increasing exposure to other assayed organs. These findings inform future RBC hitchhiking study design, implicate cellular variables as potential obstacles or boons to clinical translation, and demonstrate the delivery of nucleic acids using this strategy with the PACE nanoparticle platform.