Nanoassemblies from homostructured polypeptides as efficient nanoplatforms for oral drug delivery

Yeast Microcapsule-Mediated Targeted Delivery of Diverse Nanoparticles for Imaging and Therapy via the Oral Route

Targeting of nanoparticles to distant diseased sites after oral delivery remains highly challenging due to the existence of many biological barriers in the gastrointestinal tract. Here we report targeted oral delivery of diverse nanoparticles in multiple disease models, via a "Trojan horse" strategy based on a bioinspired yeast capsule (YC). Diverse charged nanoprobes including quantum dots (QDs), iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs), and assembled organic fluorescent nanoparticles can be effectively loaded into YC through electrostatic force-driven spontaneous deposition, resulting in different diagnostic YC assemblies. Also, different positive nanotherapies containing an anti-inflammatory drug indomethacin (IND) or an antitumor drug paclitaxel (PTX) are efficiently packaged into YC. YCs containing either nanoprobes or nanotherapies may be rapidly endocytosed by macrophages and maintained in cells for a relatively long period of time. Post oral administration, nanoparticles packaged in YC are first transcytosed by M cells and sequentially endocytosed by macrophages, then transported to neighboring lymphoid tissues, and finally delivered to remote diseased sites of inflammation or tumor in mice or rats, all through the natural route of macrophage activation, recruitment, and deployment. For the examined acute inflammation model, the targeting efficiency of YC-delivered QDs or IONPs is even higher than that of control nanoprobes administered at the same dose via intravenous injection. Assembled IND or PTX nanotherapies orally delivered via YCs exhibit remarkably potentiated efficacies as compared to nanotherapies alone in animal models of inflammation and tumor, which is consistent with the targeting effect and enhanced accumulation of drug molecules at diseased sites. Consequently, through the intricate transportation route, nanoprobes or nanotherapies enveloped in YC can be preferentially delivered to desired targets, affording remarkably improved efficacies for the treatment of multiple diseases associated with inflammation.

Preparation and characterization of foamy poly(γ-benzyl-l-glutamate-co-l-phenylalanine)/bioglass composite scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

Novel foamy scaffolds of poly(γ-benzyl-l-glutamate) and poly(γ-benzyl-l-glutamate-co-l-phenylalanine) were fabricated via a combination of a sintered NaCl templating method and ring-opening polymerization of α-amino acid N-carboxyanhydrides.

Facile route to versatile nanoplatforms for drug delivery by one-pot self-assembly

There is still unmet demand for developing powerful approaches to produce polymeric nanoplatforms with versatile functions and broad applications, which are essential for the successful bench-to-bedside translation of polymeric nanotherapeutics developed in the laboratory. We have discovered a facile, convenient, cost-effective and easily scalable one-pot strategy to assemble various lipophilic therapeutics bearing carboxyl groups into nanomedicines, through which highly effective cargo loading and nanoparticle formation can be achieved simultaneously. Besides dramatically improving water solubility, the assembled nanopharmaceuticals showed significantly higher bioavailability and much better therapeutic activity. These one-pot assemblies may also serve as nanocontainers to effectively accommodate other highly hydrophobic drugs such as paclitaxel (PTX). PTX nanomedicines thus formulated display strikingly enhanced in vitro antitumor activity and can reverse the multidrug resistance of tumor cells to PTX therapy. The special surface chemistry offers these assembled entities the additional capability of efficiently packaging and efficaciously transfecting plasmid DNA, with a transfection efficiency markedly higher than that of commonly used positive controls. Consequently, this one-pot assembly approach provides a facile route to multifunctional nanoplatforms for simultaneous delivery of multiple therapeutics with improved therapeutic significance.