Engineering Whole Mammalian Cells for Target‐Cell‐Specific Invasion/Fusion

Live mammalian cells are equipped with a synthetic cell invasion system that enables their target‐specific insertion into other live mammalian cells. By conjugating RhoA activator to a transmembrane protein that is segregated from cell–cell interface when specific cell contact occurs, polarization of RhoA activity is synthetically induced inside the cells in response to specific cell contact. This polarization is a sufficient condition for invader cells to selectively penetrate cells expressing a target antigen. Further, when an acid‐responsive fusogenic protein is expressed on invader cells, invader/receiver cell fusion occurs after invasion, and the invader's intracellular contents are released into the recipient's cytosol. It is shown that this system can be used for specific cell ablation. This synthetic‐biology‐inspired cell invasion/fusion system might open the door to using whole mammalian cells for cargo delivery purposes or for ablation of a specific cell type.