Direct Functionalization of Polysaccharide‐Based Xylan Phenyl Carbonate Nanoparticles with Tumor Cell Specific Antibodies

Abstract An efficient and easy‐to‐use approach is presented for obtaining biocompatible polysaccharide‐based nanoparticles (NP) that can act as tumor‐specific drug delivery agents. Two antibodies are directly immobilized onto reactive xylan phenyl carbonate (XPC) NP; namely Cetuximab (CTX) that binds to human epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and Atezolizumab (ATZ) that binds to programmed death‐ligand 1 (PD‐L1). High coupling efficiency (up to 100 %) are achieved without any pre‐activation and no aggregation occurs during antibody immobilization. By quartz crystal microbalance experiments with dissipation monitoring (QCM‐D), flow cytometry assays, and confocal laser scanning microscopy imaging it is demonstrated that the functionalized XPC‐NP specifically bind to cells carrying the corresponding antigens. Moreover, the NP retain the antibody specific bioactivities (growth inhibition for CTX and induction of T‐cell cytotoxicity for ATZ).