Targeted Drug Delivery

Many available drugs are effective at a very small therapeutic window without causing systemic side effects. For example, anti-coagulant drugs are effective at preventing blood clot, but can also cause systemic bleeding. To overcome these limitations, we are interested in harnessing the ability of stem cell and antibody for site-specific delivery of therapeutics.

Stem cells are rare population of progenitor cells, which have a robust proliferative potential and tremendous regenerative capacity. However, during the course of chronic disease (e.g., cardiovascular disease and diabetes) and aging, resident and circulating stem cells are subject to stress-induced premature dysfunction that limits their therapeutic use. Our lab utilizes multi-functional nanoparticles for controlled release of bioactive molecules to rejuvenate premature dysfunction of these stem cells. This strategy is based on chemical conjugation of submicron-size drug-loaded synthetic lipid-based particles directly into the plasma membrane of stem cells, enabling continuous pseudo-autocrine stimulation of transplanted cells in vivo.

Selected Publications

1. Engineering Bioactive Nanoparticles to Rejuvenate Vascular Progenitor Cells. Loan Bui, Shanique Edwards, Eva Hall, Laura Alderfer, Kellen Round, Madeline Owen, Pietro Sainaghi, Siyuan Zhang, Prakash Nallathamby, Laura S. Haneline, Donny Hanjaya-Putra. Communications Biology, 2022 June. PDF

2. Platelet-targeted dual pathway antithrombotic inhibits thrombosis with preserved hemostasis.
   Donny Hanjaya-Putra, Carolyn Haller, Xiaowei Wang, Erbin Dai, Bock Lim, Liying Liu, Patrick Jaminet, Joy Yao, Amy Searle, Thomas Bonnard, Christoph E. Hagemeyer, Karlheinz Peter, and Elliot L. Chaikof; JCI Insight, 2018 Aug; 3(15):e99329. PDF

3. Glycopeptide analogues of PSGL-1 inhibit P-selectin in vitro and in vivo
   Venkata R. Krishnamurthy, Mohammed Y.R. Sardar, Yu Ying, Xuezheng Song, Carolyn Haller, Erbin Dai, Xiaocong Wang, Donny Hanjaya-Putra, Lijun Sun, Vasilios Morikis, Scott I. Simon, Robert J. Woods, Richard D. Cummings, Elliot L. Chaikof; Nature Communications, 2015 Mar 31: 6:6387. PDF