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Xing H, Wigham C, Lee SR, Pereira AJ, de Campos LJ, Picco AS, Huck-Iriart C, Escudero C, Perez-Chirinos L, Gajaweera S, Comer J, Sasselli IR, Stupp SI, Zha RH, Conda-Sheridan M. Enhanced Hydrogen Bonding by Urea Functionalization Tunes the Stability and Biological Properties of Peptide Amphiphiles. Biomacromolecules 2024; 25:2823-2837. [PMID: 38602228 DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.3c01463] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/12/2024]
Abstract
Self-assembled nanostructures such as those formed by peptide amphiphiles (PAs) are of great interest in biological and pharmacological applications. Herein, a simple and widely applicable chemical modification, a urea motif, was included in the PA's molecular structure to stabilize the nanostructures by virtue of intermolecular hydrogen bonds. Since the amino acid residue nearest to the lipid tail is the most relevant for stability, we decided to include the urea modification at that position. We prepared four groups of molecules (13 PAs in all), with varying levels of intermolecular cohesion, using amino acids with distinct β-sheet promoting potential and/or containing hydrophobic tails of distinct lengths. Each subset contained one urea-modified PA and nonmodified PAs, all with the same peptide sequence. The varied responses of these PAs to variations in pH, temperature, counterions, and biologically related proteins were examined using microscopic, X-ray, spectrometric techniques, and molecular simulations. We found that the urea group contributes to the stabilization of the morphology and internal arrangement of the assemblies against environmental stimuli for all peptide sequences. In addition, microbiological and biological studies were performed with the cationic PAs. These assays reveal that the addition of urea linkages affects the PA-cell membrane interaction, showing the potential to increase the selectivity toward bacteria. Our data indicate that the urea motif can be used to tune the stability of a wide range of PA nanostructures, allowing flexibility on the biomaterial's design and opening a myriad of options for clinical therapies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huihua Xing
- College of Pharmacy, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska 68198, United States
| | - Caleb Wigham
- Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering, Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180, United States
| | - Sieun Ruth Lee
- Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Chemistry, Biomedical Engineering, Medicine, and Simpson Querrey Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, United States
| | - Aramis J Pereira
- College of Pharmacy, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska 68198, United States
| | - Luana J de Campos
- College of Pharmacy, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska 68198, United States
| | - Agustín S Picco
- Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y Aplicadas, INIFTA-CONICET-UNLP, La Plata 1900, Argentina
| | - Cristián Huck-Iriart
- ALBA Synchrotron Light Source, Experiments Division, 08290 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
| | - Carlos Escudero
- ALBA Synchrotron Light Source, Experiments Division, 08290 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
| | - Laura Perez-Chirinos
- Center for Cooperative Research in Biomaterials (CIC biomaGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Donostia 20014, San Sebastián, Spain
| | - Sandun Gajaweera
- Department of Anatomy and Physiology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506, United States
| | - Jeffrey Comer
- Department of Anatomy and Physiology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506, United States
| | - Ivan R Sasselli
- Center for Cooperative Research in Biomaterials (CIC biomaGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Donostia 20014, San Sebastián, Spain
- Centro de Fisica de Materiales (CFM), CSIC-UPV/EHU, Donostia 20018, San Sebastián, Spain
| | - Samuel I Stupp
- Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Chemistry, Biomedical Engineering, Medicine, and Simpson Querrey Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, United States
| | - R Helen Zha
- Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering, Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180, United States
| | - Martin Conda-Sheridan
- College of Pharmacy, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska 68198, United States
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Ouyang J, Sheng Y, Wang W. Recent Advances of Studies on Cell-Penetrating Peptides Based on Molecular Dynamics Simulations. Cells 2022; 11:cells11244016. [PMID: 36552778 PMCID: PMC9776715 DOI: 10.3390/cells11244016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2022] [Revised: 12/09/2022] [Accepted: 12/10/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
With the ability to transport cargo molecules across cell membranes with low toxicity, cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) have become promising candidates for next generation peptide-based drug delivery vectors. Over the past three decades since the first CPP was discovered, a great deal of work has been done on the cellular uptake mechanisms and the applications for the delivery of therapeutic molecules, and significant advances have been made. But so far, we still do not have a precise and unified understanding of the structure-activity relationship of the CPPs. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations provide a method to reveal peptide-membrane interactions at the atomistic level and have become an effective complement to experiments. In this paper, we review the progress of the MD simulations on CPP-membrane interactions, including the computational methods and technical improvements in the MD simulations, the research achievements in the CPP internalization mechanism, CPP decoration and coupling, and the peptide-induced membrane reactions during the penetration process, as well as the comparison of simulated and experimental results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jun Ouyang
- School of Public Courses, Bengbu Medical College, Bengbu 233030, China
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructure, Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
| | - Yuebiao Sheng
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructure, Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
- High Performance Computing Center, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
- Correspondence: (Y.S.); (W.W.)
| | - Wei Wang
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructure, Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
- Correspondence: (Y.S.); (W.W.)
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Lu S, Zhao F, Zhang Q, Chen P. Therapeutic Peptide Amphiphile as a Drug Carrier with ATP-Triggered Release for Synergistic Effect, Improved Therapeutic Index, and Penetration of 3D Cancer Cell Spheroids. Int J Mol Sci 2018; 19:E2773. [PMID: 30223518 PMCID: PMC6165277 DOI: 10.3390/ijms19092773] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2018] [Revised: 09/10/2018] [Accepted: 09/12/2018] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Despite the great progress in the field of drug delivery systems for cancer treatment over the last decade, many challenges still lie ahead, such as low drug loading, deep penetration of tumors, side effects, and the development of drug resistance. A class of cationic membrane lytic peptides has shown potential as an anticancer agent by inducing cancer cell death via membrane disruption; meanwhile, their intrinsic selectivity renders them as having low cytotoxicity towards noncancerous cells. Here, we report the use of a cationic peptide amphiphile (PA), named PAH6, to load doxorubicin (Dox) that is intercalated in an ATP-binding aptamer-incorporated DNA scaffold. The PA contains a cationic lytic sequence, (KLAKLAK)₂, a polyhistidine segment for the "proton sponge" effect, and a hydrophobic alkyl tail to drive the self-assembly. Dox-loaded DNA was found to form a spherical nanocomplex (NC) with PAH6 with particle sizes below 100 nm at various ratios. Since the carrier PAH6 is also a therapeutic agent, the drug loadings of the NC reached up to ~86% within the ratios we tested, and Dox was released from the NC in an ATP-rich environment. In vitro studies indicate that the presence of PAH6 could permeabilize cell membranes and kill cells through fast membrane disruption and depolarization of mitochondrial membranes. The cytotoxicity tests were conducted using A549 nonsmall cell lung cancer cells and NIH-3T3 fibroblast cells. PAH6 showed selectivity towards A549 cells. Significantly, the Dox-DNA/PAH6 NC exhibited a synergistic effect against A549 cells, with the IC50 decreased up to ~90% for Dox and ~69% for PAH6 when compared to the IC50 values of the two components, respectively. Furthermore, the selectivity of PAH6 conferred to the complex an improved therapeutic index between A549 and NIH-3T3 cells. A 3D-cultured A549 spheroid model was adopted to test the capability of Dox-DNA/PAH6 for tumor penetration. The PAH6 or Dox-DNA/PAH6 complex was found to break the spheroids into pieces, while Dox-treated spheroids maintained their shapes. In summary, this work provides a new strategy for constructing nanomedicines using therapeutic agents to meet the features required by anticancer treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sheng Lu
- Department of Chemical Engineering and Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada.
| | - Feng Zhao
- Faculty of Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada.
| | - Qiuxin Zhang
- Faculty of Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada.
- College of Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, Jiangsu Province, China.
| | - P Chen
- Department of Chemical Engineering and Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada.
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