Cell–cell interactions via non-covalent click chemistry

Chad Plumet (1) , Achmet Said Mohamed (1) , Tanguy Vendeuvre (2) , Brigitte Renoux (1) , Jonathan Clarhaut (1, 2) , Sébastien Papot (1)

1 IC2MP [Poitiers] - Institut de chimie des milieux et matériaux de Poitiers [UMR 7285]
2 CHU de Poitiers - Centre hospitalier universitaire de Poitiers = Poitiers University Hospital

Metabolic glycoengineering with unnatural sugars became a valuable tool for introducing recognition markers on the cell membranes via bioorthogonal chemistry. By using this strategy, we functionalized the surface of tumor and T cells using complementary artificial markers based on both β-cyclodextrins (β-CDs) and adamantyl trimers, respectively. Once tied on cell surfaces, the artificial markers induced cell–cell adhesion through non-covalent click chemistry. These unnatural interactions between A459 lung tumor cells and Jurkat T cells triggered the activation of natural killer (NK) cells thanks to the increased production of interleukin-2 (IL-2) in the vicinity of cancer cells, leading ultimately to their cytolysis. The ready-to-use surface markers designed in this study can be easily inserted on the membrane of a wide range of cells previously submitted to metabolic glycoengineering, thereby offering a simple way to investigate and manipulate intercellular interactions.

Domaines: Chimie

Chad Plumet, Achmet Said Mohamed, Tanguy Vendeuvre, Brigitte Renoux, Jonathan Clarhaut, et al.. Cell–cell interactions via non-covalent click chemistry. Chemical Science, 2021, 12 (26), pp.9017-9021. ⟨10.1039/D1SC01637G⟩. ⟨hal-03285569⟩