Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Nedal Darif, Kathrin Vogelsang, Elena Vorgia, David Schneider, Elena Deligianni, Sven Geibel, John Vontas, Shane Denecke
Summary: Cell penetrating peptides (CPPs) are small peptides that can deliver molecular cargo into cells. This study characterized the entry of four fluorescently tagged CPPs into insect cells and dissected midgut tissues. The results showed that CPPs can penetrate the plasma membrane of ovarian and midgut-derived lepidopteran cells through endosomal uptake and that this process can be inhibited by specific endocytosis inhibitors. The study also found differences in the quantity and mode of penetration among different CPPs, with CPP-1838 showing the highest efficiency in penetrating membranes through passive diffusion.
PESTICIDE BIOCHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Abhishek Saha, Shaswati Mandal, Jan Vincent V. Arafiles, Jacobo Gomez-Gonzalez, Christian P. R. Hackenberger, Ashraf Brik
Summary: By studying DABCYL-modified cR10 peptides and their derivatives, it was found that the efficiency of Ub cargo entering living cells can be significantly improved, which is of great research value.
ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE-INTERNATIONAL EDITION
(2022)
Article
Biophysics
Maria Chiarpotti, Gabriel S. Longo, Mario G. Del Popolo
Summary: In this study, the adsorption of nanoparticles coated with CPP on membranes containing acidic lipids was characterized using a molecular theory. The results show that electrostatic interactions, modulated by entropic effects, provide the driving force and regulate the adsorption kinetics of CPP-coated particles on acidic membranes. Adsorption free energy profiles allow to quantify the adsorption energy, and reveal that nanoparticles attachment and detachment from the membrane surface are restrained by free energy barriers.
COLLOIDS AND SURFACES B-BIOINTERFACES
(2021)
Review
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Hidetomo Yokoo, Makoto Oba, Satoshi Uchida
Summary: This article highlights the distinctive features of CPP-based mRNA delivery systems, including improved mRNA bioavailability, selective targeting of dendritic cells, efficient antigen presentation, and effective mRNA delivery to the lungs by dry powder inhalation.
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Hiroki Ida, Yasufumi Takahashi, Akichika Kumatani, Hitoshi Shiku, Tomo Murayama, Hisaaki Hirose, Shiroh Futaki, Tomokazu Matsue
Summary: This study visualizes the interactions between arginine-rich CPPs and cell membranes using a specialized system, revealing various membrane remodeling mechanisms and the impact of fluorescent labeling on membrane structure alteration.
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Balachandran Manavalan, Mahesh Chandra Patra
Summary: The article introduces MLCPP 2.0, a machine learning model for predicting cell-penetrating peptides and their uptake efficiency. By improving the benchmarking dataset, feature encoding algorithms, and machine learning classifiers, MLCPP 2.0 achieves outstanding performance on an independent test set and outperforms existing predictors.
JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Takaaki Miyamoto, Kousuke Tsuchiya, Keiji Numata
Summary: A strategy utilizing endosome-escaping micelles with dual peptide modification has been developed for efficient intracellular DNA delivery to plants, overcoming vacuolar degradation and enhancing transfection efficiency with minimal cytotoxicity, which could facilitate diverse biotechnological applications in plant bioengineering.
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Mika Omura, Kenta Morimoto, Yurina Araki, Hisaaki Hirose, Yoshimasa Kawaguchi, Yukiya Kitayama, Yuto Goto, Atsushi Harada, Ikuo Fujii, Tomoka Takatani-Nakase, Shiroh Futaki, Ikuhiko Nakase
Summary: A new intracellular introduction technology was developed using an inkjet device and cell-penetrating peptides to accurately deliver biofunctional cargo to cells, achieving efficient cytosolic transduction.
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
(2023)
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Muhammad Muzamil Khan, Nina Filipczak, Vladimir P. Torchilin
Summary: Cell penetrating peptides (CPP) have the ability to efficiently internalize across biological membranes, making them effective for delivering chemotherapeutic agents when combined with tumor targeting peptides.
JOURNAL OF CONTROLLED RELEASE
(2021)
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Mo'ath Yousef, Ildiko Szabo, Jozsef Muranyi, Francoise Illien, Dora Soltesz, Csaba Bato, Gabriella Toth, Gyula Batta, Peter Nagy, Sandrine Sagan, Zoltan Banoczi
Summary: This study demonstrates the preparation and investigation of efficient cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) and explores the possibility of using unnatural aromatic amino acids to mimic the properties of tryptophan. These highly active CPPs have been successful in delivering antitumor drugs into specific cell lines.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Hyejin Park, Jung-Hyun Park, Min Seok Kim, Kwangmin Cho, Jae-Min Shin
Summary: Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) have the potential to deliver bioactive agents into cells. This study developed a deep-learning-based CPP prediction method, AiCPP, and found that short peptide sequences derived from amyloid precursor proteins are efficient new CPPs. These CPP sequences can be further optimized.
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Heleri H. Hark, Ly Porosk, Lucas R. de Mello, Piret Arukuusk, Emerson R. da Silva, Kaido Kurrikoff
Summary: Despite efforts over the last three decades, there is still a lack of delivery platforms for nucleic acid-based therapeutics in the clinical stage. Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) may offer solutions as potential delivery vectors. By designing a kinked structure in the peptide backbone and optimizing the charge distribution, the CPP NF55 has been shown to have potent in vivo activity, making it a potential candidate for delivering nucleic acid-based therapeutics for lung-associated diseases.
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Ivana Ruseska, Andreas Zimmer
Summary: This study investigates the use of two types of positively charged peptide nanoparticles as delivery systems for miRNAs. The uptake of these nanoparticles was found to be dependent on time, concentration, and temperature, and different uptake pathways were discovered. Furthermore, both types of nanoparticles demonstrated anti-adipogenic effects of miRNA-27a, suggesting their potential as a novel miRNA replacement therapy for obesity and related disorders.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICS AND BIOPHARMACEUTICS
(2023)
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Grant W. Marquart, Jonathan Stoddard, Karen Kinnison, Felicia Zhou, Richard Hugo, Renee Ryals, Scott Shubert, Trevor J. McGill, Marilyn R. Mackiewicz
Summary: This study presents hybrid lipid-coated gold nanorods (AuNRs) as a solution for the challenges faced in using safe nanomaterials for optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging and stem cell-labeling agents. These nanomaterials show improved stability and efficiency of uptake compared to commercially available AuNRs with a mesoporous silica-polymer coating. They also have minimal aggregation and impact on cell health, making them suitable for stem cell labeling and OCT imaging applications.
ACS APPLIED NANO MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Medicine, Research & Experimental
Kosuke Noguchi, Momoko Obuki, Haruka Sumi, Merlin Klussmann, Kenta Morimoto, Shinya Nakai, Takuya Hashimoto, Daisuke Fujiwara, Ikuo Fujii, Eiji Yuba, Tomoka Takatani-Nakase, Ines Neundorf, Ikuhiko Nakase
Summary: The antimicrobial protein CAP18 and its derived peptides have macropinocytosis-inducible functions and high potential for use as extracellular vesicle-based drug delivery carriers. Modification of these peptides with a hydrophobic moiety allows easy introduction onto EV membranes for enhanced cellular uptake. The glycosaminoglycan-dependent induction of macropinocytosis by the peptide modification efficiently enables cytosolic delivery of biologically functional proteins encapsulated in EVs, demonstrating a useful technique for intracellular delivery of biofunctional molecules.
MOLECULAR PHARMACEUTICS
(2021)
Article
Oncology
Valentina Palacio-Castaneda, Simon Dumas, Philipp Albrecht, Thijmen J. Wijgers, Stephanie Descroix, Wouter P. R. Verdurmen
Summary: This study combines mathematical modeling with 3D in vitro models to study and predict the activity of engineered proteins targeting cancer cells, demonstrating the potential of computational approaches in advancing protein therapeutics. It highlights the need for new methods combining in silico and physiologically relevant in vitro models to improve targeted drug delivery to tumor cells.
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Camilo Torres, Simon Dumas, Valentina Palacio-Castaneda, Stephanie Descroix, Roland Brock, Wouter P. R. Verdurmen
Summary: This study developed a mathematical model to evaluate approaches towards cytosolic protein delivery, focusing on solid cancer tissues. The analysis highlighted the importance of optimizing protein design and tuning receptor affinity to enhance therapeutic potential. Results also showed how enzymatic cargoes can improve therapeutic activity even at low catalytic rates, indicating that the goal of cytosolic protein delivery for therapeutic effects is within reach with current protein engineering approaches.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Changbo Qu, Jaap Keijer, Merel J. W. Adjobo-Hermans, Melissa van de Wal, Tom Schirris, Clara van Karnebeek, Yihang Pan, Werner J. H. Koopman
Summary: The ketogenic diet shows potential positive impacts on mitochondrial bioenergetics, ROS/redox metabolism, and mitochondrial dynamics. However, more research is needed to understand its mechanistic mode of action at the cellular level and in patients with mitochondrial disease.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BIOCHEMISTRY & CELL BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Endocrinology & Metabolism
Sameh Sarray, Meriem Dallel, Laila Ben Lamine, Deeba Jairajpuri, Nejla Sellami, Amira Turki, Zainab Malalla, Roland Brock, Mohamed Ghorbel, Touhami Mahjoub
Summary: The study revealed a consistent association of the rs243865 and rs243866 genotypes with protection against T2D susceptibility.
JOURNAL OF DIABETES AND ITS COMPLICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Lukas Becker, Jasleen Singh Badwal, Fabian Brandl, Wouter P. R. Verdurmen, Andreas Pluckthun
Summary: This study systematically analyzed the correlation between the translocation of designed ankyrin repeat proteins (DARPins) and their sizes and thermal stabilities. The experiments identified a stability threshold for translocation of cargo DARPins to the cytosol, providing guidelines for further engineering translocatable binding proteins.
Article
Chemistry, Medicinal
Estel Collado Camps, Sanne A. M. van Lith, Cathelijne Frielink, Jordi Lankhof, Ingrid Dijkgraaf, Martin Gotthardt, Roland Brock
Summary: Nanobodies and cell-penetrating peptides are important targeting ligands for molecular imaging and therapy, enhancing cellular uptake and tissue retention. However, further investigation is needed to determine how their functionalities interact with each other.
Review
Clinical Neurology
Melissa A. E. van de Wal, Merel J. W. Adjobo-Hermans, Jaap Keijer, Tom J. J. Schirris, Judith R. Homberg, Mariusz R. Wieckowski, Sander Grefte, Evert M. van Schothorst, Clara van Karnebeek, Albert Quintana, Werner J. H. Koopman
Summary: Mitochondrial dysfunction is associated with various syndromes and diseases, including Leigh syndrome. Mutations in the NDUFS4 gene can cause Leigh syndrome, and studying it in mouse models has provided new insights into the pathomechanism and treatment.
Review
Biochemical Research Methods
Valentina Palacio-Castaneda, Niels Velthuijs, Severine Le Gac, Wouter P. R. Verdurmen
Summary: Variations in oxygen levels play important roles in physiological and pathological processes. However, proper control of oxygen levels is often lacking in in vitro models, leading to biased experimental outcomes. Recent advancements in microfluidic technology allow for better simulation of physiological and pathological conditions by regulating and monitoring oxygen levels at the micrometre scale. This review discusses the nature and relevance of oxygen-dependent pathways, strategies to control oxygen in microfluidic devices, and methods for monitoring oxygen levels. It also provides an overview of applications of microfluidic devices in biological research and proposes future technological refinements for oxygen-controlling devices.
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Valentina Palacio-Castaneda, Rik Oude Egberink, Arbaaz Sait, Lea Andree, Benedetta Maria Sala, Negar Hassani Besheli, Egbert Oosterwijk, Johan Nilvebrant, Sander C. G. Leeuwenburgh, Roland Brock, Wouter P. R. Verdurmen
Summary: Investigating drug delivery using a versatile microfluidic platform demonstrates specific targeting of proteins and mRNA, showing potential for bone defect regeneration in a 3D culture system.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Elianne P. Bulthuis, Claudia Einer, Felix Distelmaier, Laszlo Groh, Sjenet E. Van Emst-De Vries, Els Van De Westerlo, Melissa Van De Wal, Jori Wagenaars, Richard J. Rodenburg, Jan A. M. Smeitink, Niels P. Riksen, Peter H. G. M. Willems, Merel J. W. Adjobo-Hermans, Hans Zischka, Werner J. H. Koopman
Summary: The study showed that targeted molecules for mitochondria can lead to decreased levels of mitochondrial complex I, reduced ETC supercomplexes, inhibition of mitochondrial oxygen consumption, increased extracellular acidification, altered mitochondrial morphology, and stimulated hydroethidine oxidation. The research highlights the impact of mitochondria-targeting moieties on cellular functions.
FREE RADICAL BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
(2022)
Review
Dentistry, Oral Surgery & Medicine
C. Huang, F. Sanaei, W. P. R. Verdurmen, F. Yang, W. Ji, X. F. Walboomers
Summary: The development of microfluidics-based microphysiological systems (MPSs) is leading to a shift from traditional static cell cultivation to dynamic tissue culture. Organs-on-a-chip (OoCs) can accurately replicate the mechanical and anatomical structures of the oral environment. This review discusses chip materials, fabrication methods, and the application of OoCs in in vitro culture, with a focus on dental, oral, and craniofacial (DOC) research. It also explores future perspectives such as model standardization and integrated platforms with advanced read-out functionality, highlighting the potential of OoCs as alternatives to animal testing and for developing predictive human models.
JOURNAL OF DENTAL RESEARCH
(2023)
Review
Oncology
M. Chernyavska, M. Masoudnia, T. Valerius, W. P. R. Verdurmen
Summary: Cancer immunotherapy is a promising approach in cancer treatment, but the translation from preclinical to clinical stages is a challenge. Microfluidic tumor models provide a bridge between in vitro and in vivo systems, enabling the study of complex tumor microenvironment and cancer-immune interactions. This review analyzes the applications of microfluidic models in cancer immunotherapy development, discusses their validation for predicting in vivo outcomes, and suggests next steps for implementation.
CANCER IMMUNOLOGY IMMUNOTHERAPY
(2023)
Article
Oncology
Valentina Palacio-Castaneda, Bas van de Crommert, Elke Verploegen, Mike Overeem, Jenny van Oostrum, Wouter P. R. Verdurmen
Summary: Researchers have developed modular engineered proteins that can selectively degrade Ras in tumor cells that overexpress EpCAM, using endopeptidases fused with either Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A or diphtheria toxin. These proteins showed effective Ras degradation and selective toxicity towards tumor cells in both 2D and 3D tumor models, while non-cancerous fibroblasts remained unaffected.
MOLECULAR THERAPY-ONCOLYTICS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Omar Paulino da Silva Filho, Muhanad Ali, Rike Nabbefeld, Daniel Primavessy, Petra H. Bovee-Geurts, Silko Grimm, Andreas Kirchner, Karl-Heinz Wiesmuller, Marc Schneider, X. Frank Walboomers, Roland Brock
Summary: Efficient intracellular drug delivery in nanomedicine relies heavily on inducing cellular uptake, which can be achieved through conjugation of nanoparticles with cell-penetrating peptides. Functionalizing nanoparticles with a lactoferrin-derived cell-penetrating peptide, particularly through palmitoylation, enhances cellular uptake and stability, making it a promising strategy for drug delivery.
Meeting Abstract
Obstetrics & Gynecology
L. Eijkenboom, V. Palacio-Castaneda, F. A. Groenman, D. D. M. Braat, C. C. M. Beerendonk, R. Brock, W. P. R. Verdurmen, R. Peek
HUMAN REPRODUCTION
(2021)
