Supramolecular Dual Polypeptides Induced Tubulin Aggregation for Synergistic Cancer Theranostics

Abstract

The advent of macrocycle-based supramolecular chemistry can offer powerful strategies for regulating vital bioactivities in living systems and bring about emerging technology in biomedical science. Herein, we construct a supra-biomacromolecular nanosystem involving microtubules, cell-permeable porphyrins, and antimitotic peptide-decorated permethyl-β-cyclodextrins for promoting cell apoptosis in a cooperative manner. Through specific polypeptide–tubulin recognition, cyclodextrin moieties are capable of anchoring to the tubulin surface and providing abundant hydrophobic microenvironments to accommodate the photosensitive porphyrins. Consequently, spherical tubulin aggregates are formed, and reactive oxygen species can be efficiently generated via the host–guest complexation. The combined usage of complexation-promoted photodynamic efficacy and tubulin aggregation gives more serious cell apoptosis under light irradiation in vitro and in vivo. To be envisioned, this supramolecularly enhanced photodynamic performance together with controlled aggregation of natural biomacromolecules may be developed as an innovative approach to improve the therapeutic potency against many diseases.

Cucurbituril-Based Porphyrin Cascade Assembly for Cell Imaging and Targeted Drug Delivery

“…9,10-Anthracenediyl-bis­(methylene)­dimalonic acid (ABDA) was used as the reactive oxygen species (ROS) indicator to investigate the efficiency of ROS generation by TPP-PY and its supramolecular nanoaggregates, using Rose Bengal (RB) as standard control. − As depicted in Figure and Figure S12 (Supporting Information), the UV–vis absorption spectra showed a decrease in absorbance at 378 nm, corresponding to the ROS-induced degradation of ABDA after illumination. The calculation on the singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ) generation efficiency of free TPP-PY was 2.2 times as high as that of RB (163% versus 75%, Table S1, Supporting Information).…”

Synthesizing biomaterials in living organisms

“…100 The reversible feature of host-guest interaction makes it an efficient tool for drug delivery and cancer theranostics, by which the host-guest complexes were constructed in vitro and applied in live organisms. [101][102][103][104][105] In this section, we emphasize using this interaction to directly control or regulate the synthesis of supramolecular assemblies in living organisms.…”

The Role of Cyclodextrin in the Construction of Nanoplatforms: From Structure, Function and Application Perspectives

“…Thus material engineers tend to put forward pro or post modification to endow extra roles for CyDs [44,45]. Liu et al has designed antimitotic peptide-decorated permethyl-β-CyD for inclusion of porphyrins [46]. The introduction of permethyl-β-CyD improves water solubility of the loaded porphyrins and helps to promote cell apoptosis.…”