Cytomembrane Infused Polymer Accelerating Delivery of Myelin Antigen Peptide to Treat Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis

Harnessing Immunomodulatory Polymers for Treatment of Autoimmunity, Allergy, and Transplant Rejection

Autoimmunity, allergy, and transplant rejection are a collection of chronic diseases that are currently incurable, drastically decrease patient quality of life, and consume considerable health care resources. Underlying each of these diseases is a dysregulated immune system that results in the mounting of an inflammatory response against self or an innocuous antigen. As a consequence, afflicted patients are required to adhere to lifelong regimens of multiple immunomodulatory drugs to control disease and reclaim agency. Unfortunately, current immunomodulatory drugs are associated with a myriad of side effects and adverse events, such as increased risk of cancer and increased risk of serious infection, which negatively impacts patient adherence rates and quality of life. The field of immunoengineering is a new discipline that aims to harness endogenous biological pathways to thwart disease and minimize side effects using novel biomaterial-based strategies. We highlight and discuss polymeric micro/nanoparticles with inherent immunomodulatory properties that are currently under investigation in biomaterial-based therapies for treatment of autoimmunity, allergy, and transplant rejection.

Mechanisms of antigen-induced reversal of CNS inflammation in experimental demyelinating disease

Autoimmune central nervous system (CNS) demyelinating diseases are a major public health burden and poorly controlled by current immunosuppressants. More precise immunotherapies with higher efficacy and fewer side effects are sought. We investigated the effectiveness and mechanism of an injectable myelin-based antigenic polyprotein MMPt (myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein, myelin basic protein and proteolipid protein, truncated). We find that it suppresses mouse experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis without major side effects. MMPt induces rapid apoptosis of the encephalitogenic T cells and suppresses inflammation in the affected CNS. Intravital microscopy shows that MMPt is taken up by perivascular F4/80⁺ cells but not conventional antigen-presenting dendritic cells, B cells, or microglia. MMPt-stimulated F4/80⁺ cells induce reactive T cell immobilization and apoptosis in situ, resulting in reduced infiltration of inflammatory cells and chemokine production. Our study reveals alternative mechanisms that explain how cognate antigen suppresses CNS inflammation and may be applicable for effectively and safely treating demyelinating diseases.

Tetrahedral framework nucleic acids-based delivery promotes intracellular transfer of healing peptides and accelerates diabetic would healing

Objectives

Peptide‐based therapeutics are natural candidates to desirable wound healing. However, enzymatic surroundings largely limit its stability and bioavailability. Here, we developed a tetrahedral framework nucleic acids(tFNA)‐based peptide delivery system, that is, p@tFNAs, to address deficiencies of healing peptide stability and intracellular delivery in diabetic wound healing.

Materials and Methods

AGEs (advanced glycation end products) were used to treat endothelial cell to simulate cell injury in diabetic microenvironment. The effects and related mechanisms of p@tFNAs on endothelial cell proliferation, migration, angiogenesis and ROS (reactive oxygen species) production have been comprehensively studied. The wound healing model in diabetic mice was photographically and histologically investigated in vivo.

Results

Efficient delivery of healing peptide by the framework(tFNA) was verified. p@tFNAs helped overcome the angiogenic obstacles induced by AGEs via ERK1/2 phosphorylation. In the meantime, p@tFNA exhibited its antioxidative property to achieve ROS balance. As a result, p@tFNA improved angiogenesis and diabetic wound healing in vitro and in vivo.

Conclusions

Our findings demonstrate that p@tFNA could be a novel therapeutic strategy for diabetic wound healing. Moreover, a new method for intracellular delivery of peptides was also constructed.

Therapeutic peptides: current applications and future directions

Peptide drug development has made great progress in the last decade thanks to new production, modification, and analytic technologies. Peptides have been produced and modified using both chemical and biological methods, together with novel design and delivery strategies, which have helped to overcome the inherent drawbacks of peptides and have allowed the continued advancement of this field. A wide variety of natural and modified peptides have been obtained and studied, covering multiple therapeutic areas. This review summarizes the efforts and achievements in peptide drug discovery, production, and modification, and their current applications. We also discuss the value and challenges associated with future developments in therapeutic peptides.

Dual peptide nanoparticles platform for enhanced antigen-specific immune tolerance for treatment of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis

Current therapeutic strategies for autoimmune diseases including multiple sclerosis (MS) are directed toward nonspecific immunosuppression which has severe side effects. The induction of antigen-specific tolerance becomes an ideal therapy for...

Precisely Shaped Self-Adjuvanting Peptide Vaccines with Enhanced Immune Responses for HPV-Associated Cancer Therapy

Peptide vaccines exhibit great potential in cancer therapy via eliciting antigen-specific host immune response and long-term immune memory to defend cancer cells. However, the low induced immune response of many developing vaccines implies the imperatives for understanding the favorable structural features of efficient cancer vaccines. Herein, we report on the two groups of self-adjuvanting peptide vaccines with distinct morphology and investigate the relationship between the morphology of peptide vaccines and the induced immune response. Two nanofibril peptide vaccines were created via co-assembly of a pentapeptide with a central 4-aminoproline residue, with its derivative functionalized with antigen epitopes derived from human papillomavirus E7 proteins, whereas utilization of a pentapeptide with a natural proline residue led to the formation of two nanoparticle peptide vaccines. The immunological results of dendritic cell (DCs) maturation and antigen presentation induced by the peptide assemblies implied the self-adjuvanting property of the resulting peptide vaccines. In particular, cellular uptake studies revealed the enhanced internalization and elongated retention of the nanofibril peptide vaccines in DCs, leading to their advanced performance in DC maturation, accumulation at lymph nodes, infiltration of cytotoxic T lymphocytes into tumor tissues, and eventually lysis of in vivo tumor cells, compared to the nanoparticle counterparts. The antitumor immune response caused by the nanofibril peptide vaccines was further augmented when simultaneously administrated with anti-PD-1 checkpoint blockades, suggesting the opportunity of the combinatorial immunotherapy by utilizing the nanofibril peptide vaccines. Our findings strongly demonstrate a robust relationship between the immune response of peptide vaccines and their morphology, thereby elucidating the critical role of morphological control in the design of efficient peptide vaccines and providing the guidance for the design of efficient peptide vaccines in the future.