Transformable amyloid-beta mimetic peptide amphiphiles for lysosomal disruption in non-small cell lung cancer

Synthetic Nanoassemblies for Regulating Organelles: From Molecular Design to Precision Therapeutics

Each organelle referring to a complex multiorder architecture executes respective biological processes via its distinct spatial organization and internal microenvironment. As the assembly of biomolecules is the structural basis of living cells, creating synthetic nanoassemblies with specific physicochemical and morphological properties in living cells to interfere or couple with the natural organelle architectures has attracted great attention in precision therapeutics of cancers. In this review, we give an overview of the latest advances in the synthetic nanoassemblies for precise organelle regulation, including the formation mechanisms, triggering strategies, and biomedical applications in precision therapeutics. We summarize the emerging material systems, including polymers, peptides, and deoxyribonucleic acids (DNAs), and their respective intermolecular interactions for intercellular synthetic nanoassemblies, and highlight their design principles in constructing precursors that assemble into synthetic nanoassemblies targeting specific organelles in the complex cellular environment. We further showcase the developed intracellular synthetic nanoassemblies targeting specific organelles including mitochondria, the endoplasmic reticulum, lysosome, Golgi apparatus, and nucleus and describe their underlying mechanisms for organelle regulation and precision therapeutics for cancer. Last, the essential challenges in this field and prospects for future precision therapeutics of synthetic nanoassemblies are discussed. This review should facilitate the rational design of organelle-targeting synthetic nanoassemblies and the comprehensive recognition of organelles by materials and contribute to the deep understanding and application of the synthetic nanoassemblies for precision therapeutics.

Copper-Induced Supramolecular Peptide Assemblies for Multi-Pathway Cell Death and Tumor Inhibition

Although self-assembly has emerged as an effective tool for fabricating biomaterials, achieving precise control over the morphologies and functionalities of the resultant assemblies remains an ongoing challenge. Inspired by the copper peptide naturally present in human plasma, in this study, we designed a synthetic precursor, FcGH. FcGH can self-assemble via two distinct pathways: spontaneous and Cu2+-induced. These two assembly pathways enabled the formation of assemblies with tunable morphologies by adjusting the amount of added Cu2+. We found that the nanoparticles formed by Cu2+-induced self-assembly exhibited a significantly higher cellular uptake efficiency than the wormlike fibers formed spontaneously. Moreover, this Cu2+-induced assembly process occurred spontaneously at a 1 : 1 molar ratio of Cu2+ to FcGH, avoiding the excessive use of Cu2+ and a tedious preparation procedure. By co-assembling with 10-hydroxycamptothecin (HCPT)-conjugated FcGH, Cu2+-induced supramolecular nanodrugs elicited multiple cell death modalities in cancer cells with elevated immunogenicity, enhancing the therapeutic effect compared to free HCPT. This study highlights Cu2+-induced self-assembly as an efficient tool for directing the assembly of nanodrugs and for synergistic tumor therapy.

From cells to subcellular organelles: Next-generation cancer therapy based on peptide self-assembly

Due to the editability, functionality, and excellent biocompatibility of peptides, in situ self-assembly of peptides in cells is a powerful strategy for biomedical applications. Subcellular organelle targeting of peptides assemblies enables more precise drug delivery, enhances selectivity to disease cells, and mitigates drug resistance, providing an effective strategy for disease diagnosis and therapy. This reviewer first introduces the triggering conditions, morphological changes, and intracellular locations of self-assembling peptides. Then, the functions of peptide assemblies are summarized, followed by a comprehensive understanding of the interactions between peptide assemblies and subcellular organelles. Finally, we provide a brief outlook and the remaining challenges in this field.

Bimetallic Coordination Polymers: Synthesis and Applications in Biosensing and Biomedicine

Bimetallic coordination polymers (CPs) have two different metal ions as connecting nodes in their polymer structure. The synthesis methods of bimetallic CPs are mainly categorized into the one-pot method and post-synthesis modifications according to various needs. Compared with monometallic CPs, bimetallic CPs have synergistic effects and excellent properties, such as higher gas adsorption rate, more efficient catalytic properties, stronger luminescent properties, and more stable loading platforms, which have been widely applied in the fields of gas adsorption, catalysis, energy storage as well as conversion, and biosensing. In recent years, the study of bimetallic CPs synergized with cancer drugs and functional nanomaterials for the therapy of cancer has increasingly attracted the attention of scientists. This review presents the research progress of bimetallic CPs in biosensing and biomedicine in the last five years and provides a perspective for their future development.

Nanofibers in Organelles: From Structure Design to Biomedical Applications

Nanofibers are one of the most important morphologies of molecular self-assemblies, the formation of which relies on the diverse intermolecular interactions of fibrous-forming units. In the past decade, rapid advances have been made in the biomedical application of nanofibers, such as bioimaging and tumor treatment. An important topic to be focused on is not only the nanofiber formation mechanism but also where it forms, because different destinations could have different influences on cells and its formation could be triggered by unique stimuli in organelles. It is therefore necessary and timely to summarize the nanofibers assembled in organelles. This minireview discusses the formation mechanism, triggering strategies, and biomedical applications of nanofibers, which may facilitate the rational design of nanofibers, improve our understanding of the relationship between nanofiber properties and organelle characteristics, allow a comprehensive recognition of organelles affected by materials, and enhance the therapeutic efficiency of nanofibers.

Immunogenic dead cells engineered by the sequential treatment of ultraviolet irradiation/cryo-shocking for lung-targeting delivery and tumor vaccination

Chemoimmunotherapy is a promising strategy in tumor treatments. In this study, immunogenic dead cells were engineered by the sequential treatment of live tumor cells with ultraviolet (UV) irradiation and cryo-shocking. The dead cells could serve as a lung-targeting vehicle and tumor vaccine after differential loading of the chemo-drug 10-hydroxycamptothecin (HCPT) and immune adjuvant Quillaja saponin-21 (QS-21) via physical absorption and chemical conjugation, respectively. After intravenous administration, the dead cells could be trapped in pulmonary capillaries and could fast release HCPT to enhance the drug accumulation in local tissues. Further, the immunogenic dead cells elicited antitumor immune responses together with the conjugated adjuvant QS-21 to achieve the elimination and long-term surveillance of tumor cells. In a lung tumor-bearing mice model, this drug-delivery system achieved synergistic antitumor efficacy and prolonged the survival of mice.

Lysosomal trapping of 4-dimethylamino-1-{3-(1-methyl-1H-imidazole-2-yl)propanoyl}piperidine, a hydrophilic and weakly basic amine, in human aortic vascular smooth muscle cells

Some weakly basic compounds lead to cell death accompanied by cellular vacuolation. The novel analgesic agent, 4-dimethylamino-1-{3-(1-methyl-1H-imidazole-2-yl)propanoyl}piperidine (DMIP), is a hydrophilic and weakly basic compound that induces vacuolation in the vascular smooth muscle cells in dogs. Here, we investigated the vacuolation mechanism and the potential cytotoxicity of DMIP using human aortic vascular smooth muscle cells. When cells were treated with DMIP (0.1, 0.3, and 1 mM) for 6, 24, and 48 h, clear cytoplasmic vacuolation was observed at 1 mM after 24 and 48 h, along with an increase in the intracellular DMIP concentration. The vacuolation and intracellular DMIP were markedly reduced by bafilomycin A1, a vacuolar H⁺-ATPase inhibitor. The late endosome marker Rab7 and lysosome marker LAMP-2 were highly expressed but the early endosome marker Rab5 and autophagosome marker LC3 were not expressed specifically on the vacuolar membranes. These results suggested that the most vacuoles were enlarged late endosomes/lysosomes, resulting from the accumulation of DMIP by ion trapping. Moreover, DMIP did not affect lysosomal membrane integrity and was less cytotoxic than chloroquine, an inducer of phospholipidosis. The current study provides further insight into the mechanisms of vacuolation and lysosomal trapping induced by the hydrophilic and weakly basic amine DMIP.

Molecularly Stimuli-Responsive Self-Assembled Peptide Nanoparticles for Targeted Imaging and Therapy

Self-assembly has emerged as an extensively used method for constructing biomaterials with sizes ranging from nanometers to micrometers. Peptides have been extensively investigated for self-assembly. They are widely applied owing to their desirable biocompatibility, biodegradability, and tunable architecture. The development of peptide-based nanoparticles often requires complex synthetic processes involving chemical modification and supramolecular self-assembly. Stimuli-responsive peptide nanoparticles, also termed "smart" nanoparticles, capable of conformational and chemical changes in response to stimuli, have emerged as a class of promising materials. These smart nanoparticles find a diverse range of biomedical applications, including drug delivery, diagnostics, and biosensors. Stimuli-responsive systems include external stimuli (such as light, temperature, ultrasound, and magnetic fields) and internal stimuli (such as pH, redox environment, salt concentration, and biomarkers), facilitating the generation of a library of self-assembled biomaterials for biomedical imaging and therapy. Thus, in this review, we mainly focus on peptide-based nanoparticles built by self-assembly strategy and systematically discuss their mechanisms in response to various stimuli. Furthermore, we summarize the diverse range of biomedical applications of peptide-based nanomaterials, including diagnosis and therapy, to demonstrate their potential for medical translation.

Light-Triggered Self-Assembly of Peptide Nanoparticles into Nanofibers in Living Cells through Molecular Conformation Changes and H-Bond Interactions

Controlled self-assembly has attracted extensive interest in biological and nanotechnological applications. Enzymatic or biocatalytic triggered self-assembly is widely used for the diagnostic and prognostic marker in different pathologies because of their nanostructures and biological effects. However, it remains a great challenge to control the self-assembly of peptides in living cells with a high degree of spatial and temporal precision. Here we demonstrate a light-triggered platform that enables spatiotemporal control of self-assembly from nanoparticles into nanofibers in living cells through subtle molecular conformational changes and internal H-bonding interactions. The platform contained 3-methylene-2-(quinolin-8-yl) isoindolin-1-one, which acts as the light-controlled unit to disrupt the hydrophilic/lipophilic balance through the change of molecular conformation, and a peptide that can be a faster recombinant to assemble via H-bonding interactions. The process has good biocompatibility because it does not involve waste generation or oxygen consumption; moreover, the assembly rate constant was fast and up to 0.17 min^-1. It is applied to the regulation of molecular assembly in living cells. As such, our findings demonstrate that light-triggered controllable assembly can be applied for initiative regulating cellular behaviors in living systems.

Trident Molecule with Nanobrush-Nanoparticle-Nanofiber Transition Property Spatially Suppresses Tumor Metastasis

Metastasis-induced high mortality of cancers urgently demands new approaches to simultaneously inhibit primary tumor metastasis and distant tumor growth. Herein, by rational design of a trident molecule Nap-Phe-Phe-Lys(SA-CPT)-Lys(SA-HCQ)-Tyr(H₂PO₃)-OH (Nap-CPT-HCQ-Yp) with three functional "spears" (i.e., a phosphotyrosine motif for enzymatic self-assembly, camptothecin (CPT) motif for chemotherapy, and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) motif for autophagy inhibition) and nanobrush-nanoparticle-nanofiber transition property, we propose a novel strategy of intracellular enzymatic nanofiber formation and synergistic autophagy inhibition-enhanced chemotherapy and immunotherapy for spatial suppression of tumor metastasis. Under sequential alkaline phosphatase catalysis and carboxylesterase hydrolysis, Nap-CPT-HCQ-Yp undergoes nanobrush-nanoparticle-nanofiber transition, accompanied by the releases of CPT and HCQ. The formed intracellular nanofibers effectively inhibit the metastasis and invasion behaviors of cancer cells. Meanwhile, the released CPT and HCQ synergistically induce a prominent therapeutic effect through autophagy inhibition-enhanced chemotherapy. Furthermore, chemotherapy of Nap-CPT-HCQ-Yp enhances immunogenic cell death, resulting in the activation of toxic T-cells. Finally, a combination of checkpoint blockade therapy and Nap-CPT-HCQ-Yp-mediated chemotherapy elicits systemic antitumor immunity, thereby achieving efficient inhibitions of primary tumors as well as distant tumors in a breast tumor model. Our work offers a simple and feasible strategy for the design of "smart" multifunctional prodrugs to spatially suppress tumor metastasis.

Nanodrugs Detonate Lysosome Bombs

Cancer cell lysosomes contain various hydrolases and non-degraded substrates that are corrosive enough to destroy cancer cells. However, many traditional small molecule drugs targeting lysosomes have strong side effects because they cannot effectively differentiate between normal and cancer cells. Most lysosome-based research has focused on inducing mild lysosomal membrane permeabilization (LMP) to release anticancer drugs from lysosomal traps into the cancer cell cytoplasm. In fact, lysosomes are particularly powerful "bombs". Achieving cancer cell-selective LMP induction may yield high-efficiency anticancer effects and extremely low side effects. Nanodrugs have diverse and combinable properties and can be specifically designed to selectively induce LMP in cancer cells by taking advantage of the differences between cancer cells and normal cells. Although nanodrugs-induced LMP has made great progress recently, related reviews remain rare. Herein, we first comprehensively summarize the advances in nanodrugs-induced LMP. Next, we describe the different nanodrugs-induced LMP strategies, namely nanoparticles aggregation-induced LMP, chemodynamic therapy (CDT)-induced LMP, and magnetic field-induced LMP. Finally, we analyze the prospect of nanodrugs-induced LMP and the challenges to overcome. We believe this review provides a unique perspective and inspiration for designing lysosome-targeting drugs.

Biomedical polymers: synthesis, properties, and applications

Biomedical polymers have been extensively developed for promising applications in a lot of biomedical fields, such as therapeutic medicine delivery, disease detection and diagnosis, biosensing, regenerative medicine, and disease treatment. In this review, we summarize the most recent advances in the synthesis and application of biomedical polymers, and discuss the comprehensive understanding of their property-function relationship for corresponding biomedical applications. In particular, a few burgeoning bioactive polymers, such as peptide/biomembrane/microorganism/cell-based biomedical polymers, are also introduced and highlighted as the emerging biomaterials for cancer precision therapy. Furthermore, the foreseeable challenges and outlook of the development of more efficient, healthier and safer biomedical polymers are discussed. We wish this systemic and comprehensive review on highlighting frontier progress of biomedical polymers could inspire and promote new breakthrough in fundamental research and clinical translation.

Biodegradable Metal-Organic-Framework-Gated Organosilica for Tumor-Microenvironment-Unlocked Glutathione-Depletion-Enhanced Synergistic Therapy

The clinical employment of cisplatin (cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II) (CDDP)) is largely constrained due to the non-specific delivery and resultant serious systemic toxicity. Small-sized biocompatible and biodegradable hollow mesoporous organosilica (HMOS) nanoparticles show superior advantages for targeted CDDP delivery but suffer from premature CDDP leakage. Herein, the smart use of a bimetallic Zn²⁺ /Cu²⁺ co-doped metal-organic framework (MOF) is made to block the pores of HMOS for preventing potential leakage of CDDP and remarkably increasing the loading capacity of HMOS. Once reaching the acidic tumor microenvironment (TME), the outer MOF can decompose quickly to release CDDP for chemotherapy against cancer. Besides, the concomitant release of dopant Cu²⁺ can deplete the intracellular glutathione (GSH) for increased toxicity of CDDP as well as catalyzing the decomposition of intratumoral H₂ O₂ into highly toxic •OH for chemodynamic therapy (CDT). Moreover, the substantially reduced GSH can also protect the yielded •OH from scavenging and thus greatly improve the •OH-based CDT effect. In addition to providing a hybrid HMOS@MOF nanocarrier, this study is also expected to establish a new form of TME-unlocked nanoformula for highly efficient tumor-specific GSH-depletion-enhanced synergistic chemotherapy/chemodynamic therapy.