Article
Medicine, Research & Experimental
Yu-Fon Chen, Zih-Hua Wang, Yi-Cheng Chen, Chien-Hsiang Chang, Hui-Zhong Zhuang, Fang-Yu Chung, Jeng-Shiung Jan
Summary: Developing gene vectors with high efficiency and low cytotoxicity is crucial for gene therapy. This study investigated the use of cationic polypeptide bilayer assemblies as gene vectors and found that they showed improved transfection efficiency and biocompatibility compared to traditional vectors. The study also demonstrated that the gene vectors combined with low-dose chemotherapy drugs can effectively treat genetically resistant cancers while reducing side effects.
MOLECULAR PHARMACEUTICS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Cameron W. Evans, Diwei Ho, Joshua B. Marlow, Jessica J. King, Charmaine Hee, Lucas N. Wong, Rob Atkin, Nicole M. Smith, Gregory G. Warr, Marck Norret, K. Swaminathan Iyer
Summary: Non-viral delivery is an important strategy for gene therapy, immunization, and RNA interference, but the efficiency of current non-viral carriers is limited. Researchers have developed dendronized bottlebrush polymers with controlled defects, showing that synthetic macromolecular complexes can communicate intracellularly. This challenges the assumption that delivery agents act as bystanders and improves the design of non-viral delivery agents for genome engineering, vaccines, and nucleic acid-based therapies.
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
(2022)
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Bo Yu, Xiangtao Wang, Lijuan Ding, Meihua Han, Yifei Guo
Summary: The study found that natural polymer PLL is an ideal polypeptide material for preparing drug-loaded nanoparticles, with higher drug-loading content and smaller particle sizes compared to PEG-PLL. Animal experiments also showed that PLL can improve the anti-tumor activity of MTX. The research results suggest that PLL has potential clinical applications in the field of nano drug delivery.
Article
Materials Science, Biomaterials
James E. Noble, Paula Vila-Gomez, Stephanie Rey, Camilla Dondi, Andrea Briones, Purnank Aggarwal, Alex Hoose, Maryana Baran, Maxim G. Ryadnov
Summary: This study cross-compares commercial and experimental transfection reagents from the same family of helical amphiphiles and reveals that despite differences in sequence composition, length, and origin, peptide reagents of the same structural family exhibit similar characteristics and limitations with common variability trends. The functional DNA delivery is found to be independent of the peptide sequence used but is mediated by the ability of the reagents to co-fold with DNA. Peptide folding is proved to be the common determinant for DNA complexation and delivery by peptidic transfection reagents.
ACS BIOMATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
(2023)
Review
Biology
Mindy Liu Perkins, Lautaro Gandara, Justin Crocker
Summary: Identifying the general principles by which genotypes are converted into phenotypes remains a challenge. Synthetic biology techniques can facilitate a systematic exploration of evolvability across biological scales. Combining synthetic approaches with multi-level phenotyping can provide a detailed characterization of how stimuli shape the morphology and behavior of organisms. Integrating experimental data with mathematical and computational techniques is advocated to pursue a comprehensive theory of evolution.
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Polymer Science
Zheng Huang, Ya-Ping Xiao, Yu Guo, Hui-Zhen Yang, Rui-Mo Zhao, Ji Zhang, Xiao-Qi Yu
Summary: Gene and protein therapy have great potential in treating severe human diseases. A novel polymer that combines zinc coordination and a fluorinated backbone has been designed and synthesized for efficient gene and protein delivery. Experimental results demonstrate its versatility and potential in gene and protein therapy.
EUROPEAN POLYMER JOURNAL
(2022)
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Maria Lago-Silva, Manuel Fernandez-Miguez, Rafael Rodriguez, Emilio Quinoa, Felix Freire
Summary: Synthetic dynamic helical polymers and foldamers share the helix as a structural motif, and changes in their helical structures can be induced by stimuli-responsive components.
CHEMICAL SOCIETY REVIEWS
(2023)
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Jonathan Whisenant, Kevin Burgess
Summary: Small mimics of interface secondary structures can be used to disrupt protein-protein interactions (PPIs) in cell biology and medicinal chemistry. Peptides constrained in conformations resembling interface secondary structures are favored for enhanced affinities to PPI components. Two main strategies, capping and stapling, have emerged for imposing helical constraints in probes. Capping motifs terminate helices and project adjacent peptide units in non-helical orientations, while stapling enforces helical motifs and enables adjacent peptide fragments to extend helices. There is no evidence that stapling is more effective than capping for helix mimicry, but stapling is used more frequently.
CHEMICAL SOCIETY REVIEWS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Bineet Sharma, Yutao Ma, Harrison L. Hiraki, Brendon M. Baker, Andrew L. Ferguson, Allen P. Liu
Summary: Giant peptide vesicles were generated easily and robustly using an emulsion transfer method, able to withstand chemical and physical stresses while hosting cell-free expression reactions. Additionally, another cell-free expressed elastin-like polypeptide was successfully incorporated into the existing membrane of the peptide vesicles.
CHEMICAL COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Wakana Sato, Melanie Rasmussen, Nathaniel Gaut, Mahima Devarajan, Kaitlin Stokes, Christopher Deich, Aaron E. Engelhart, Katarzyna P. Adamala
Summary: Synthetic cells express proteins using cell-free transcription-translation technology and this method is utilized for various applications such as investigating natural gene pathways, metabolic engineering, drug development, and bioinformatics. However, there is a need for further advancements in gene-specific and straightforward regulation methods. This study presents a method of controlling gene expression in synthetic cells using a silencing oligo and demonstrates the transfection of various payloads to synthetic cell liposomes.
BIOTECHNOLOGY AND BIOENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Virology
Natalia Teresa Jarzebska, Julia Frei, Severin Lauchli, Lars E. French, Emmanuella Guenova, Cecile Gouttefangeas, Thomas M. Kundig, Mark Mellett, Steve Pascolo
Summary: This study presents a simple method for determining in vitro T-cell responses by lipofection of synthetic mRNA in mononuclear cells. The results demonstrate that antigen-specific T-cell immune monitoring can be easily and quickly performed using this method. This work provides a convenient solution for the in vitro monitoring of natural or therapy-induced T-cell immune responses.
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Yanpeng Zhu, Jiaobing Wang
Summary: This article summarizes the research progress and importance of synthetic nanographene in the field of chemistry. With precise atomic structure and unique molecular properties, nanographene has applications in optoelectronics, nanotechnologies, and biomedicine.
ACCOUNTS OF CHEMICAL RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Polymer Science
Xinlin Jiang, Jijun Fu, Junyang Zhong, Xin Li, He Wang, Songjing Zhong, Yinhui Wei, Xiaoya Zhao, Xing Chen, Yi Zhou, Lingran Du, Guodong Ye, Jing Zhao, Yugang Huang
Summary: By synthesizing guanidinylated cyclic synthetic polypeptides, it is possible to enhance the efficiency of siRNA delivery. NCs have higher encapsulation efficiency and silencing efficiency, while mimicking the bioactivity of cell-penetrating peptides and nuclear localization signal peptides.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Sergei V. Raik, Tatiana V. Mashel, Albert R. Muslimov, Olga S. Epifanovskaya, Mikhail A. Trofimov, Daria N. Poshina, Kirill V. Lepik, Yury A. Skorik
Summary: The study found that TMAB-CS has a high affinity for DNA and demonstrated high transfection efficiency in HEK293T cells. However, it was less effective in K562 cells compared to polyarginine, albeit still more effective overall.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Zoe Whiteley, Giulia Massaro, Georgios Gkogkos, Asterios Gavriilidis, Simon N. Waddington, Ahad A. Rahim, Duncan Q. M. Craig
Summary: Nanogels produced by microfluidics are a new alternative for the production of AAV vectors with comparable yields to traditional transfection reagents. The optimized nanogels showed no significant difference in titer compared to traditional reagents, but at lower costs.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Weidong Ni, Jiayan Wu, Huapan Fang, Yuanji Feng, Yingying Hu, Lin Lin, Jie Chen, Fangfang Chen, Huayu Tian
Summary: Immunotherapy shows promise for tumor treatment, but its clinical effect is limited by tumor immunogenicity and the immunosuppressive microenvironment. Researchers combined metal-organic framework MIL-100 loaded with mitoxantrone (MTO) with photothermal-chemotherapy to enhance immunogenic cell death. The resulting MMH NPs, with dual therapeutic properties and imaging modes, showed high antitumor efficacy and immune effect when co-injected with anti-OX40 antibody in colorectal cancer. This novel combined therapeutic strategy is promising for future tumor therapy.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Yuyan Zhang, Yingying Hu, Huayu Tian, Xuesi Chen
Summary: With the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2, mRNA vaccines have played a crucial role in COVID-19 vaccine development and have made significant advances in the field of mRNA therapeutic techniques. However, there are still challenges in terms of stability and cellular delivery. Therefore, exploring efficient and safe delivery technologies is essential for improving mRNA therapeutic techniques.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Lin Lin, Yingying Hu, Zhaopei Guo, Jie Chen, Pingjie Sun, Huayu Tian, Xuesi Chen
Summary: A gene-guided self-killing therapy based on anchoring OX40L to tumor cell membrane was developed to enhance the effectiveness of immune checkpoint blockade therapy. It transformed cold tumors to hot, prevented tumor recurrence and metastasis, and offered a new possibility for immunotherapy of various solid tumors.
BIOACTIVE MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Sijia Zhang, Ying Zhang, Yuanji Feng, Jiayan Wu, Yingying Hu, Lin Lin, Caina Xu, Jie Chen, Zhaohui Tang, Huayu Tian, Xuesi Chen
Summary: This study explores the combination of regulating tumor glycometabolism with anti-PD-L1 therapy for tumor treatment. By using nanoparticles combined with anti-PD-L1, tumor development is significantly inhibited, increasing the survival time of mice. This strategy also has an immunological memory effect, successfully preventing tumor recurrence and metastasis.
ADVANCED MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Dianwei Wang, Lin Lin, Tong Li, Meng Meng, Kai Hao, Zhaopei Guo, Jie Chen, Huayu Tian, Xuesi Chen
Summary: A covalent organic framework (COF) sonosensitizer is developed using a new nanoscale COF preparation strategy, which improves the therapeutic effect of sonodynamic therapy (SDT). The COF structure prevents aggregation of the sonosensitizer molecules and enhances their chemical stability. Additionally, the coordination of Fe3+ to COF enables chemodynamic therapy performance and glutathione consumption ability. The combination of enhanced SDT and alpha-PD-L1 antibody achieves effective antitumor effects.
ADVANCED MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Shu Sheng, Lin Lin, Feng Liu, Ying Zhang, Caina Xu, Kai Hao, Dianwei Wang, Huayu Tian, Xuesi Chen
Summary: This study developed a strategy for tumor-specific imaging-guided enhanced combination tumor therapy by introducing endogenous biocatalytic reaction. The reaction produced endogenous melanin with the capabilities of photoacoustic imaging and photothermal therapy. The nanocarrier MIL-100 played dual roles in the reaction, coordinating with the catechol moieties and promoting biocatalysis, and also converting overexpressed H2O2 to O-2, which enhanced the therapeutic outcomes.
CHEMISTRY OF MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Jiayan Wu, Zhaopei Guo, Weidong Ni, Yuanji Feng, Xiaoya Guo, Meng Meng, Yunan Yuan, Lin Lin, Jie Chen, Huayu Tian, Xuesi Chen
Summary: The immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) has a low response rate in clinical cancer treatment. Chemotherapy can enhance the response rate of the ICB, but it leads to side effects. Loading chemotherapy drugs through nanocarriers can reduce off-target toxicity. In this study, researchers developed doxorubicin (DOX) nanoparticles (DOX NPs) loaded in a polymeric carrier that was responsive to the tumor microenvironment (TME). However, a combination therapy of DOX NPs and ICB induced tumor adaptive resistance, which was found to be caused by TGF-beta 1. To overcome this resistance, an immune cocktail therapy containing DOX NPs, ICB, and TGF-beta 1 gene silencing nanoparticles was developed, successfully reversing the immunosuppressive TME and improving tumor treatment efficiency.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Zhen Li, Yuanji Feng, Sijia Zhang, Tong Li, Huixin Li, Dianwei Wang, Kai Hao, Chaoliang He, Huayu Tian, Xuesi Chen
Summary: Researchers synthesized a nanoparticle TMP containing tannic acid, Polymyxin B, and Mn2+ by a simple one-pot method. TMP has good biocompatibility, simple preparation process, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, and effectively mitigates cytokine storms in sepsis models.
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Shengyang Liu, Jiayan Wu, Yuanji Feng, Xiaoya Guo, Tong Li, Meng Meng, Jie Chen, Daquan Chen, Huayu Tian
Summary: Researchers have developed a nanovaccine that activates the immune system to trigger tumor-specific immune responses, with potential clinical applications in tumor prevention and treatment. The nanovaccine promotes the uptake and maturation of antigens and adjuvants in dendritic cells, leading to an antitumor immune response.
BIOACTIVE MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Materials Science, Biomaterials
Tong Li, Dianwei Wang, Zhaopei Guo, Lin Lin, Meng Meng, Cong Liu, Kai Hao, Xuan Pang, Huayu Tian, Xuesi Chen
Summary: The emergence of nanocarriers has greatly improved the therapeutic efficacy of chemotherapeutic drugs. Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have been increasingly used in biomedicine. However, existing COF nanocarriers hardly undergo in vivo degradation, which may pose potential safety hazards.
BIOMATERIALS SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Materials Science, Biomaterials
Huixin Li, Kai Hao, Jiayan Wu, Chaoliang He, Shasha He, Huayu Tian, Xuesi Chen
Summary: This study developed a theragnostic nano-platform for real-time imaging and treatment of acute liver injury (ALI). The nano-platform consists of a liver-targeted probe for real-time imaging and a drug for ALI treatment. After systemic administration, the nano-platform passively targets liver tissue and activates an infrared signaling module for non-invasive longitudinal imaging, while releasing the drug for timely treatment. The nano-platform provides comprehensive estimations for ALI, comparable to standard methods including blood tests and flow cytometric analysis.
BIOMATERIALS SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Materials Science, Biomaterials
Yuanji Feng, Zhaopei Guo, Jie Chen, Sijia Zhang, Jiayan Wu, Huayu Tian, Xuesi Chen
Summary: This study proposes a strategy to achieve efficient nucleic acid and protein delivery through multiple interactions and develops a novel delivery system. By introducing an enhancer that promotes multiple interactions with the cell membrane, efficient intracellular delivery is achieved. For nucleic acid delivery, gene editing and protein expression are achieved, while for protein delivery, enhanced immune responses are induced. Furthermore, the delivery system exhibits negligible cytotoxicity.
BIOMATERIALS SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Materials Science, Biomaterials
Weidong Ni, Jiayan Wu, Yuanji Feng, Yingying Hu, Haiyan Liu, Jie Chen, Fangfang Chen, Huayu Tian
Summary: Tumor stroma plays a crucial role in colorectal cancer, and a novel treatment strategy utilizing antitumor stroma and nanoscale materials has shown promising results in reshaping the tumor immune microenvironment.
BIOMATERIALS SCIENCE
(2022)
Review
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Zhiyu Yang, Zhaopei Guo, Huayu Tian, Xuesi Chen
Summary: Various strategies have been developed to improve the efficacy of polymeric gene delivery systems. These strategies can be categorized into covalent and noncovalent strategies, with noncovalent strategies focusing on mixing additional functional components with carriers to enhance gene transfection efficiency.
