Review
Biochemical Research Methods
Yiao Wang, Carston R. Wagner, Mark D. Distefano
Summary: The homeostasis of cellular activities is crucial for the normal functioning of organisms. Protein conjugates, as hybrid biomacromolecules, have shown great potential in manipulating cell function for therapeutic applications such as cancer treatment, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine. This review discusses recent progress in the design and assembly of protein conjugates, including different categories based on their mechanisms of action, conjugation methodologies, and potential biomedical applications.
BIOCONJUGATE CHEMISTRY
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Joshua P. Morrow, Zihnil A. I. Mazrad, Ashley I. Bush, Kristian Kempe
Summary: This study reports the synthesis and characterization of water-soluble Fer-1 poly(2-oxazoline)-drug conjugates (PDCs) for anti-ferroptosis therapy. The conjugates showed improved anti-ferroptosis activity compared to reversible linked Fer-1. This work introduces the first active Fer-1 PDCs and a highly tuneable poly(2-oxazoline)-based PDC platform for anti-ferroptosis applications.
JOURNAL OF CONTROLLED RELEASE
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Yachao Li, Lian Li, Jiawei Wang, D. Christopher Radford, Zhongwei Gu, Jindrich Kopecek, Jiyuan Yang
Summary: Dendronized polymer enhances the efficacy of oncolytic peptides for immunotherapy by inducing immunogenic cell death in cancer cells, converting immunosuppressive tumors to immunoresponsive ones, and increasing the number of cytotoxic T cells. Combination with immune checkpoint blockade further enhances efficacy and results in complete tumor eradication in mice, indicating a promising platform for oncolytic immunotherapy.
JOURNAL OF CONTROLLED RELEASE
(2021)
Article
Medicine, Research & Experimental
Zihnil A. I. Mazrad, Meike N. Leiske, Rico F. Tabor, Joseph A. Nicolazzo, Kristian Kempe
Summary: In this study, brush polymers were used to investigate their interaction with murine and human microglial cells and their potential for delivering anti-inflammatory molecules. Ellipsoidal particles showed the highest cellular association, and LPS-activated human microglia exhibited a significant increase in association with brush polymers. Brush polymer-NAC conjugates showed significant anti-inflammatory activity in LPS-activated human microglia. These findings suggest the potential of brush polymers for targeted therapy of microglial-mediated neuroinflammation.
MOLECULAR PHARMACEUTICS
(2023)
Article
Spectroscopy
Yalda Haghighi Shishavan, Mohammad Amjadi
Summary: Polymer dots (PDs) with non-conjugated functional groups were synthesized and their potential application in chemiluminescence (CL) reactions was explored. It was found that PDs significantly increased the CL intensity of the NaIO4-fluorescein system and metronidazole (MND) interaction with PDs promoted CL emission, leading to the development of a novel and sensitive assay for MND detection.
SPECTROCHIMICA ACTA PART A-MOLECULAR AND BIOMOLECULAR SPECTROSCOPY
(2021)
Review
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Corey. A. Stevens, Kuljeet Kaur, Harm-Anton Klok
Summary: Protein-polymer conjugates combine the stability of polymers with the diversity, specificity, and functionality of biomolecules, resulting in hybrid materials with unique properties for drug delivery applications. Engineering amphiphilicity into these bioconjugate materials can lead to phase separation and assembly of high-order structures, with multiple levels of organization and emergence of new properties at each level influenced by lower levels.
ADVANCED DRUG DELIVERY REVIEWS
(2021)
Article
Polymer Science
Rebecca A. Olson, Jordan S. Levi, Georg M. Scheutz, Jacob J. Lessard, C. Adrian Figg, Manasi N. Kamat, Kari B. Basso, Brent S. Sumerlin
Summary: A novel eosin Y-derived polymer photocatalyst is utilized for synthesizing polymeric bioconjugates in this study. The photocatalyst can induce light-mediated reversible-deactivation radical polymerization under biologically benign conditions, allowing for simple purification of polymer-protein conjugates through precipitation. The study also demonstrates the optimization of polymerization conditions for controlling molecular weight and reaction kinetics, along with the recyclability of the recovered photocatalyst, advancing bioconjugate manufacturing.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Krisztina Toth, Krisztina S. Nagy, Zeliha Gueler, Akos Gyoergy Juhasz, Eva Pallinger, Gabor Varga, A. Sezai Sarac, Miklos Zrinyi, Angela Jedlovszky-Hajdu, David Juriga
Summary: In this study, polysuccinimide (PSI) based electrospun fibrous meshes conjugated with dopamine (DA) are prepared and thoroughly investigated. The dopamine release kinetics from the fibers influence cellular viability and morphology, and the conjugates are internalized by both cell types.
MACROMOLECULAR BIOSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Johnathan C. Maza, Derek M. Garcia-Almedina, Lydia E. Boike, Noah X. Hamlish, Daniel K. Nomura, Matthew B. Francis
Summary: A convenient enzymatic strategy is described for modifying cell surfaces using tyrosinase enzyme. The strategy involves introducing unique tyrosine residues at the C-termini of nanobodies, which can then be selectively oxidized to reactive o-quinones. These reactive intermediates readily react with thiol, amine, and imidazole residues present on cell surfaces, resulting in novel nanobody-cell conjugates that exhibit targeted antigen binding. The approach is further extended to the synthesis of nanobody-NK cell conjugates for targeted immunotherapy applications, which demonstrate targeted cell binding and induce targeted cell death.
ACS CENTRAL SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Takato Sakono, Hiroto Terasaki, Shozo Sonoda, Ryoh Funatsu, Hideki Shiihara, Eisuke Uchino, Toshifumi Yamashita, Taiji Sakamoto
Summary: The study found that multicolor scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (MC-SLO) is more useful in detecting microaneurysms (MA) in eyes with diabetic retinopathy (DR) compared to optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA).
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Mahuya Kar, Md. Anas, Palash Banerjee, Arpana Singh, Prosenjit Sen, Tarun K. Mandal
Summary: In this study, hydrophilic poly(1-vinylimidazole) was introduced into hydrophobic perylene bisimides to produce a water- and organic-soluble polymer conjugate. The conjugate exhibited good aggregation properties in both aqueous and organic solvents, and could form complexes with DNA. Furthermore, the conjugate showed low cytotoxicity and high quantum yield, making it suitable for cellular imaging.
ACS APPLIED POLYMER MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Zhiyuan Han, Rohit M. Vaidya, Opeyemi H. Arogundade, Liang Ma, Mohammad U. Zahid, Suresh Sarkar, Chia-Wei Kuo, Paul R. Selvin, Andrew M. Smith
Summary: Quantum dots (QDs) are widely used semiconductor nanocrystals in life science studies. A focus of research is to reduce the size of QDs to enhance their accessibility to biological targets. By coating QDs with multidentate polymer coatings, the researchers were able to achieve compact and stable QDs with smaller hydrodynamic sizes. The study also found that the structural characteristics of the polymers play a crucial role in determining the hydrodynamic size, colloidal stability, and biomolecular interactions of the coated QDs. The findings provide insights for the design of next-generation QDs with sizes approaching fluorescent protein labels.
CHEMISTRY OF MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Tiantian Guo, Haiping Zhong, Xingwei Li, Jingqing Mu, Tao Liu, Na Yu, Yang Zhao, Xing-Jie Liang, Shutao Guo
Summary: In this study, we synthesized four dextran-paclitaxel (PTX) conjugates with different drug contents and used them to construct self-assembled nanoparticles. We investigated how PTX content influenced the performance and antitumor efficacy of the nanoparticles. The results showed that nanoparticles with lower PTX content exhibited faster drug release, increased tumor accumulation, and enhanced antitumor efficacy.
JOURNAL OF CONTROLLED RELEASE
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Wenchao Huang, Longshuai Zhang, Jiawei Sun, Yuanzi Sun, Like Gong, Sisi Ge, Xunbin Wei, Weiping Gao
Summary: This study presents intelligent nanoworms with dual-acid-sensitive properties, which can penetrate and release drugs in tumor cells, effectively suppressing tumor growth with better efficacy compared to nanospheres and doxorubicin, and without observed side effects in a mouse model.
ADVANCED HEALTHCARE MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Ophthalmology
X. I. A. O. C. H. U. N. LING, HUNG-DA CHOU, L. A. U. R. A. LIU, NAN-KA WANG, CHI-CHUN LAI, KUAN-JEN CHEN, YIH-SHIOU HWANG, WEI-CHI WU
Summary: In pediatric patients with a history of prematurity, intravenous ultrawide-field fluorescein angiography (IV FA) provides superior image quality, shorter time to dye appearance and peak fluorescence, and higher peak intensity compared to oral FA. However, oral FA remains an effective and useful alternative in this population.
RETINA-THE JOURNAL OF RETINAL AND VITREOUS DISEASES
(2022)
