Advances in Enantiomer-Dependent Nanotherapeutics

Abstract

The nanoscale properties of nanomaterials, especially nanoparticles, including size, shape, and surface charge, have been extensively studied for their impact on nanomedicine. Given the inherent chiral nature of biological systems and their high enantiomeric selectivity, there is rising interest to manipulate the chirality of nanomaterials to enhance their biomolecular interactions and improve nanotherapeutics. Chiral nanostructures are currently more prevalently used in biosensing and diagnostic applications owing to their distinctive physical and optical properties, but they hold great promise for use in nanomedicine. In this Review, we first discuss stereospecific interactions between chiral nanomaterials and biomolecules before comparing the synthesis and characterization methods of chiral nanoparticles and nanoassemblies. Finally, we examine the applications of chiral nanotherapeutics in cancer, immunomodulation, and neurodegenerative diseases and propose plausible mechanisms in which chiral nanomaterials interact with cells for biological manipulation. This Review on chirality is a timely reminder of the arsenal of nanoscale modifications to boost research in nanotherapeutics.

Glutathione-Responsive and Hydrogen Sulfide Self-Generating Nanocages Based on Self-Weaving Technology To Optimize Cancer Immunotherapy

“…Just as our design, the HA-gNCs with hollow nanostructure showed a stable and high drug loading capacity and encapsulation efficiency at around 15.5% and 88.8%, respectively (Figure a), which was significantly higher than that of clinically applied nanocarriers. − At the same time, no destructive effects on the uniformity of the HA-gNCs induced by the drug encapsulation were observed (Figure b). Furthermore, the stability of the HA-gNCs was also outstanding, as even after incubation in buffers for 2 weeks at 37 °C, the particle size and ζ potential remained almost unchanged (Figure c).…”

The First Reciprocal Activities of Chiral Peptide Pharmaceuticals: Thymogen and Thymodepressin, as Examples

“…The chiral nature of peptides and their high enantiomeric selectivity are vital for new synthetic peptides containing the L and D combinations to generate optimal mixed structures to search for a new physiologically active substance [62]. With time, progress has been achieved in preparing optically pure peptide pharmaceuticals: about 85% are produced chemically and optically pure [63].…”

Single Crystal and Pentatwinned Gold Nanorods Result in Chiral Nanocrystals with Reverse Handedness

“…Chirality can be transferred from organic to inorganic substances, via assembly of achiral building blocks into a chiral arrangement, or by the preparation of nanostructures with chiral morphology [1] . This has been historically accomplished by directing amino acids or peptides to systems such as CaCO 3 , [2–3] Au, [4–7] Ag, [8] HgS, [9] or Te, [10] with more recent studies applying DNA or even circularly‐polarized light to these systems, yielding a host of novel structures with interesting optical properties [11] . These processes, which enable new approaches to control the structure of nanomaterials, [12–15] crucially depend on the inherent properties of the inorganic crystals, such as the crystal lattice, [9] stabilization of certain chiral kinks, [2] or the presence of crystalline defects such as screw dislocations [10] .…”