Exploitation of phage display for the development of anti-cancer agents targeting fibroblast growth factor signaling pathways: New strategies to tackle an old challenge

Recent Progress in Phage-Based Nanoplatforms for Tumor Therapy

Nanodrug delivery systems have demonstrated a great potential for tumor therapy with the development of nanotechnology. Nonetheless, traditional drug delivery systems are faced with issues such as complex synthetic procedures, low reproducibility, nonspecific distribution, impenetrability of biological barrier, systemic toxicity, etc. In recent years, phage-based nanoplatforms have attracted increasing attention in tumor treatment for their regular structure, fantastic carrying property, high transduction efficiency and biosafety. Notably, therapeutic or targeting peptides can be expressed on the surface of the phages through phage display technology, enabling the phage vectors to possess multifunctions. As a result, the drug delivery efficiency on tumor will be vastly improved, thereby enhancing the therapeutic efficacy while reducing the side effects on normal tissues. Moreover, phages can overcome the hindrance of biofilm barrier to elicit antitumor effects, which exhibit great advantages compared with traditional synthetic drug delivery systems. Herein, this review not only summarizes the structure and biology of the phages, but also presents their potential as prominent nanoplatforms against tumor in different pathways to inspire the development of effective nanomedicine.

Application of bioinformatics and molecular dynamics simulation approaches for identification of fibroblast growth factor 10 analogues with potentially improved thermostability

Fibroblast growth factor 10 functions as a paracrine mesenchymal molecule to initiate signalling pathways regarding to cellular development and health. However, the low thermal stability restricts it's functionality in the human body and the shelf-life of FGF10-based formulations. The current study aimed to employ rational design and bioinformatics approaches to identify some point mutations which may improve the thermal stability of FGF10. Bioinformatics analyses resulted in N105D, C106F, K144R, K153M and I156R as the potential stability conferring mutations. The identified mutants were subjected to MD simulation indicating that all mutations are both structurally and energetically favoured. Finally, the effects of the identified mutations on receptor binding of FGF10 were predicted and the results showed that K144R and K153M mutations may increase the binding affinity relative to the wild type. The findings of the current study propose potentially improved FGF10 analogues for further experimental investigations.

"French Phage Network" Annual Conference-Fifth Meeting Report

Attracting about 100 participants, the fifth edition of our French Phages.fr annual conference was once more a success. This year’s conference took place at the Institute for Structural Biology on the European Electron and Photon Campus in Grenoble, 8–9 October 2019. Similar to previous years, our meeting gathered scientists mainly working in France, from academic labs and hospitals as well as from industry. We also had the pleasure of welcoming attendees from different European countries and even beyond. The conference was divided into four sessions: Ecology and Evolution, Phage Therapy and Biotechnology, Structure and Assembly and Phage–Host Interaction, each opened by a keynote lecture. The talks, selected from abstracts, gave the opportunity for young scientists (especially students and post-docs) to present their project and results in a friendly atmosphere. Poster sessions also favoured interactions and discussions between young researchers and more senior scientists. Here, we provide a summary of the topics developed during the conference.