Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 16, 744–752 (2019)

Vesicles self-assembled from Janus dendrimers (JDs) are much more stable at room temperature than liposomes formed by phospholipids. And JDs can coassemble with Gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli membranes. Now Yadavalli et al. have found that JDs can also stabilize fragile human cell membranes, forming stable cell-like hybrids from human membrane vesicles and dendrimersomes.

They first prepare giant dendrimersomes from selected JDs and create human membrane vesicles by simple centrifugation of human cells. A dehydration–rehydration procedure is then applied to coassemble the prepared giant dendrimersomes with the human membrane vesicles. Successful formation of hybrid vesicles is evidenced by dual-colour imaging using fluorescence microscopy. The giant hybrid cells can be stored in buffer at room temperature for more than a year. Moreover, the hybrid vesicles with both bacterial membranes and human cell membranes are very biocompatible, so the authors further explore their bioactivity. By expressing adhesion protein YadA in bacterial membrane, they fabricate hybrid cell-like vesicles made from dendrimersome and bacterial membrane that can be recognized by HeLa cells and delivered into the cytoplasm. Hybrid vesicles containing dendrimersomes and human cell membranes are also bioactive, capable of binding and aggregating E. coli cells with YadA proteins. These hybrid platforms may prove useful in recognition, signalling and delivery applications.