Scratching the Surface of Unventured Possibilities with In Situ Self-Assembly: Protease-Activated Developments for Imaging and Therapy

Abstract

In situ self-assembly has attracted increasing research interest for applications in imaging and therapy in recent years. Particularly for protease-activated developments, inspiration is drawn from the innate specificity of their catalytic activities, rapid discovery of the various roles they play in the proliferation of certain diseases, and inherent susceptibility of small molecule peptide conjugates to proteolytic digestion in vivo. The overexpression of a disease-related protease of interest can be exploited as an endogenous stimulus for site-specific self-assembly to largely amplify a molecular event happening at the cellular level. This holds great potential for applications in early stage disease detection, long-term disease monitoring, and sustained therapeutic effects. This review summarizes the recent developments in protease-activated self-assemblies for imaging and therapeutic applications toward the manifestation of tumors, bacterial infections, neurodegenerative disorders, and wound recovery.

Mitochondria-Targeted Self-Assembly of Peptide-Based Nanomaterials

“…In the previous section, we discussed the assembled peptidenanomaterials that locate mitochondria. Recently, the in situ selfassembly attracts much attention due to its spatiotemporal precision and activable bioeffects, emerging as a frontier in the biomedical field (Deng et al, 2021;Kwek et al, 2021;Liu et al, 2021a;Wang et al, 2021b). The specific enzymes and overexpressed ROS can be used to trigger the self-assembly around or on the surface of mitochondria in situ.…”

Assessment of the Enzymatic Dephosphorylation Kinetics in the Assemblies of a Phosphopentapeptide that Forms Intranuclear Nanoribbons

“…Peptide assemblies have emerged as a new class of biomaterials and have received increased research attention over the last two decades. 1−12 Since the seminal works demonstrated the applications of peptide assemblies in tissue engineering 13,14 and the report of exceptional self-assembling ability of short peptides, 15 peptide assemblies 16−23 have been explored for a wide range of applications, such as drug delivery, 24−26 cancer therapy, 27−32 optoelectronics, 33 cell cultures, 34,35 antibacterial, 36−38 immunomodulation, 39 molecular imaging, 40,41 and protein mimics. 8,42−44 Being encouraged by these rapid advances, we and Ulijn et al have shown the use of enzymatic reactions for generating peptide assemblies as a type enzymeresponsive biomaterials.…”

Near-Infrared Copper Sulfide Hollow Nanostructures with Enhanced Photothermal and Photocatalytic Performance for Effective Bacterial Sterilization

“…Although novel antibiotics and antimicrobial materials have made great strides in recent years, bacterial infection remains a clinical threat to human health. , It was reported that the number of deaths related to global antibiotic resistance will increase to 10 million per year by 2050 . Therefore, it is of great significance to develop safe, effective, less toxic, and nonantibiotic antibacterial strategies. , Traditional antibacterial polymer materials, including chlorhexidine, triclosan, polyethylenimide, etc., are mainly related to organelle modification and interference with bacterial intracellular biochemical pathways. − They play an antibacterial role through the destruction of cell membrane, genes, protease, and other active substances . However, the development of polymer antibacterial materials is constrained by the difficulties, such as severe toxicity, poor heat resistance, quick breakdown, and the potential to induce microbial resistance. − Alternatively, inorganic nanomaterials have been widely used in the field of tumor treatment and bacterial infection thanks to their low toxicity, good biocompatibility, easy modification, and large surface energy. − Recently, various inorganic nanomaterials have been synthesized, including noble metal-based nanomaterials, , transition-metal-based nanomaterials, and other metallic nanomaterials .…”