Functionalization of cellular membrane by cholesterol-dendrimer conjugates

Abstract

Modification by chemicals of cell membrane opens the door to numerous chances in both chemistry and biology, while it is still a challenge due to the complexity of surface molecule chemistry, the fragility of the cells and their dynamic structure that changes their overall constituents in response to environment. This thesis describes a new strategy to display non-native functional groups for the selective chemical remodeling of cell membrane. We have used cholesterol-dendrimer conjugates as vehicle to functionalize cell membrane in a rapid, efficient way compare to reported methods. Thiol, ketone and azide were chosen to investigate. These artificial functionalities on the cell surface can then be detected by either chemoselective ligation reaction under physiological condition with molecules carrying complementary reactive functional groups or directly visualized by FT-IR microscopy. Preliminary data showed a good viability of surface-modified Hep G2 cells, hinted a possible usage of this strategy in cell membrane engineering.