Engineered mechanosensitive MSCs enable synthetic radiotheranostic targeting across tumor types.

Engineered MSCs detect tumor stiffness to enable targeted radiotheranostics, achieving sensitive detection and treatment across multiple tumor models.

• Why it matters: Tumors often lack consistent molecular targets, limiting the effectiveness of radiopharmaceutical imaging and therapy. Addressing this gap could improve precision in cancer treatment.
• What they did: The study developed a stiffness-responsive MSC platform that induces synthetic biomarker expression in response to tumor stiffness, demonstrated by PSMA expression enabling PET imaging and therapy in various models.
• The result: This approach enhances tumor detection sensitivity and therapeutic efficacy while reducing off-target effects, broadening the potential for universal, biomarker-independent radiotheranostics.