Targeted protein degradation via cellular trafficking of nanoparticles

Abstract

Strategies that selectively bind proteins of interest and target them to the intracellular protein recycling machinery for targeted protein degradation have recently emerged as powerful tools for undruggable targets in biomedical research and the pharmaceutical industry. However, targeting any new protein of interest with current degradation tools requires a laborious case-by-case design for different diseases and cell types, especially for extracellular targets. Here we observe that nanoparticles can mediate specific receptor-independent internalization of a bound protein and further develop a general strategy for degradation of extracellular proteins of interest by making full use of clinically approved components. This extremely flexible strategy aids in targeted protein degradation tool development and provides knowledge for targeted drug therapies and nanomedicine design.