RNA-Binding Peptides Inspired by the RNA Recognition Motif.

ß-Hairpin peptides with RNA-binding sequences mimicking the central two ß-strands of the RNA recognition motif (RRM) protein domain have been observed to bind in a 2:1 fashion to a series of RNA homooligonucleotides in aqueous solution (PBS buffer, pH 7.40) with binding energies (-27 to -35 kJ mol-1) similar to those of full-size protein RRMs. The peptides display mild selectivities with respect to the binding of the different homooligomers. Binding studies in 500 mM magnesium chloride suggest that the complex formation is not predominantly driven by Coulombic attraction. These peptides represent a starting point for further studies of non-Coulombic binding of RNA by peptides and proteins, which is important in the context of contemporary biology, potential therapeutic applications, and prebiotic peptide-RNA interactions.

Molecular dissection of the soluble photosynthetic antenna from the cryptophyte alga Hemiselmis andersenii.

Cryptophyte algae have a unique phycobiliprotein light-harvesting antenna that fills a spectral gap in chlorophyll absorption from photosystems. However, it is unclear how the antenna transfers energy efficiently to these photosystems. We show that the cryptophyte Hemiselmis andersenii expresses an energetically complex antenna comprising three distinct spectrotypes of phycobiliprotein, each composed of two αß protomers but with different quaternary structures arising from a diverse α subunit family. We report crystal structures of the major phycobiliprotein from each spectrotype. Two-thirds of the antenna consists of open quaternary form phycobiliproteins acting as primary photon acceptors. These are supplemented by a newly discovered open-braced form (~15%), where an insertion in the α subunit produces ~10 nm absorbance red-shift. The final components (~15%) are closed forms with a long wavelength spectral feature due to substitution of a single chromophore. This chromophore is present on only one ß subunit where asymmetry is dictated by the corresponding α subunit. This chromophore creates spectral overlap with chlorophyll, thus bridging the energetic gap between the phycobiliprotein antenna and the photosystems. We propose that the macromolecular organization of the cryptophyte antenna consists of bulk open and open-braced forms that transfer excitations to photosystems via this bridging closed form phycobiliprotein.

Water-Soluble Arylazoisoxazole Photoswitches.

Azoheteroarenes are emerging as powerful alternatives to azobenzene molecular photoswitches. In this study, water-soluble arylazoisoxazole photoswitches are introduced. UV/vis and NMR spectroscopy revealed moderate to very good photostationary states and reversible photoisomerization between the E- and Z-isomers over multiple cycles with minimal photobleaching. Several arylazoisoxazoles form host-guest complexes with ß- and γ-cyclodextrin with significant differences in binding constants for each photoisomer as shown by isothermal titration calorimetry and NMR experiments, indicating their potential for photoresponsive host-guest chemistry in water. One carboxylic acid functionalized arylazoisoxazole can act as a hydrogelator, allowing gel properties to be manipulated reversibly with light. The hydrogel was characterized by rheological experiments, atom force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. These results demonstrate that arylazoisoxazoles can find applications as molecular photoswitches in aqueous media.

Liposome-Micelle-Hybrid (LMH) Carriers for Controlled Co-Delivery of 5-FU and Paclitaxel as Chemotherapeutics.

Paclitaxel (PTX) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) are clinically relevant chemotherapeutics, but both suffer a range of biopharmaceutical challenges (e.g., either low solubility or permeability and limited controlled release from nanocarriers), which reduces their effectiveness in new medicines. Anticancer drugs have several major limitations, which include non-specificity, wide biological distribution, a short half-life, and systemic toxicity. Here, we investigate the potential of liposome-micelle-hybrid (LMH) carriers (i.e., drug-loaded micelles encapsulated within drug-loaded liposomes) to enhance the co-formulation and delivery of PTX and 5-FU, facilitating new delivery opportunities with enhanced chemotherapeutic performance. We focus on the combination of liposomes and micelles for co-delivery of PTX and 5_FU to investigate increased drug loading, improved solubility, and transport/permeability to enhance chemotherapeutic potential. Furthermore, combination chemotherapy (i.e., containing two or more drugs in a single formulation) may offer improved pharmacological performance. Compared with individual liposome and micelle formulations, the optimized PTX-5FU-LMH carriers demonstrated increased drug loading and solubility, temperature-sensitive release, enhanced permeability in a Caco-2 cell monolayer model, and cancer cell eradication. LMH has significant potential for cancer drug delivery and as a next-generation chemotherapeutic.

Halide Noninnocence and Direct Photoreduction of Ni(II) Enables Coupling of Aryl Chlorides in Dual Catalytic, Carbon-Heteroatom Bond-Forming Reactions.

Recent mechanistic studies of dual photoredox/Ni-catalyzed, light-driven cross-coupling reactions have found that the photocatalyst (PC) operates through either reductive quenching or energy transfer cycles. To date, reports invoking oxidative quenching cycles are comparatively rare and direct observation of such a quenching event has not been reported. However, when PCs with highly reducing excited states are used (e.g., Ir(ppy)3), photoreduction of Ni(II) to Ni(I) is thermodynamically feasible. Recently, a unified reaction system using Ir(ppy)3 was developed for forming C-O, C-N, and C-S bonds under the same conditions, a prospect that is challenging with PCs that can photooxidize these nucleophiles. Herein, in a detailed mechanistic study of this system, we observe oxidative quenching of the PC (Ir(ppy)3 or a phenoxazine) via nanosecond transient absorption spectroscopy. Speciation studies support that a mixture of Ni-bipyridine complexes forms under the reaction conditions, and the rate constant for photoreduction increases when more than one ligand is bound. Oxidative addition of an aryl iodide was observed indirectly via oxidation of the resulting iodide by Ir(IV)(ppy)3. Intriguingly, the persistence of the Ir(IV)/Ni(I) ion pair formed in the oxidative quenching step was found to be necessary to simulate the observed kinetics. Both bromide and iodide anions were found to reduce the oxidized form of the PC back to its neutral state. These mechanistic insights inspired the addition of a chloride salt additive, which was found to alter Ni speciation, leading to a 36-fold increase in the initial turnover frequency, enabling the coupling of aryl chlorides.

Hydrogels with intrinsic antibacterial activity prepared from naphthyl anthranilamide (NaA) capped peptide mimics.

In this study, we prepared antibacterial hydrogels through the self-assembly of naphthyl anthranilamide (NaA) capped amino acid based cationic peptide mimics. These ultra-short cationic peptide mimics were rationally designed with NaA as a capping group, L-phenylalanine, a short aliphatic linker, and a cationic group. The synthesized peptide mimics efficiently formed hydrogels with minimum gel concentrations between 0.1 and 0.3%w/v. The resulting hydrogels exhibited desirable viscoelastic properties which can be tuned by varying the cationic group, electronegative substituent, or counter anion. Importantly, nanofibers from the NaA-capped cationic hydrogels were found to be the source of hydrogels' potent bacteriacidal actvity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria while remaining non-cytotoxic. These intrinsically antibacterial hydrogels are ideal candidates for further development in applications where bacterial contamination is problematic.

A Tunable Tumor Microenvironment through Recombinant Bacterial Collagen-Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogels.

Laboratory models of the tumor microenvironment require control of mechanical and biochemical properties to ensure accurate mimicry of patient disease. In contrast to pure natural or synthetic materials, hybrid approaches that pair recombinant protein fragments with synthetic scaffolding show many advantages. Here we demonstrate production of a recombinant bacterial collagen-like protein (CLP) for thiol-ene pairing to norbornene functionalized hyaluronic acid (NorHA). The resultant hydrogel material shows an adjustable modulus with evidence for strain-stiffening behavior that resembles natural tumor matrices. Cysteine terminated peptide binding motifs are incorporated to adjust the cell-adhesion points. The modular hybrid gel shows good biocompatibility and was demonstrated to control cell adhesion, proliferation, and the invasive properties of MCF7 and MD-MBA-231 breast adenocarcinoma cells. The ease in which multiple structural and bioactive components can be integrated provides a robust framework to form models of the tumor microenvironment for fundamental studies and drug development.

Lanthanide-based ß-Tricalcium Phosphate Upconversion Nanoparticles as an Effective Theranostic Nonviral Vectors for Image-Guided Gene Therapy.

Lanthanide-based beta-tricalcium phosphate (ß-TCP) upconversion nanoparticles are exploited as a non-viral vector for imaging guided-gene therapy by virtue of their unique optical properties and multi-modality imaging ability, high transfection efficiency, high biocompatibility, dispersibility, simplicity of synthesis and surface modification. Ytterbium and thulium-doped ß-TCP nanoparticles (ßTCPYbTm) are synthesized via co-precipitation method, coated with polyethylenimine (PEI) and functionalized with a nuclear-targeting peptide (TAT). Further, in vitro studies revealed that the nanotheranostic carriers are able to transfect cells with the plasmid eGFP at a high efficiency, with approximately 60% of total cells producing the fluorescent green protein. The optimized protocol developed comprises the most efficient ßTCPYbTm/PEI configuration, the amount and the order of assembly of ßTCPYbTm:PEI, TAT, plasmid DNA and the culturing conditions. With having excellent dispersibility and high chemical affinity toward nucleic acid, calcium ions released from ßTCPYbTm:PEI nanoparticles can participate in delivering nucleic acids and other therapeutic molecules, overcoming the nuclear barriers and improving the transfection efficacy. Equally important, the feasibility of the upconversion multifunctional nanovector to serve as an effective contrast agent for imaging modality, capable of converting low-energy light to higher-energy photons via a multi-photons mechanism, endowing greater unique luminescent properties, was successfully demonstrated.

Biofunctionality with a twist: the importance of molecular organisation, handedness and configuration in synthetic biomaterial design.

The building blocks of life - nucleotides, amino acids and saccharides - give rise to a large variety of components and make up the hierarchical structures found in Nature. Driven by chirality and non-covalent interactions, helical and highly organised structures are formed and the way in which they fold correlates with specific recognition and hence function. A great amount of effort is being put into mimicking these highly specialised biosystems as biomaterials for biomedical applications, ranging from drug discovery to regenerative medicine. However, as well as lacking the complexity found in Nature, their bio-activity is sometimes low and hierarchical ordering is missing or underdeveloped. Moreover, small differences in folding in natural biomolecules (e.g., caused by mutations) can have a catastrophic effect on the function they perform. In order to develop biomaterials that are more efficient in interacting with biomolecules, such as proteins, DNA and cells, we speculate that incorporating order and handedness into biomaterial design is necessary. In this review, we first focus on order and handedness found in Nature in peptides, nucleotides and saccharides, followed by selected examples of synthetic biomimetic systems based on these components that aim to capture some aspects of these ordered features. Computational simulations are very helpful in predicting atomic orientation and molecular organisation, and can provide invaluable information on how to further improve on biomaterial designs. In the last part of the review, a critical perspective is provided along with considerations that can be implemented in next-generation biomaterial designs.

Singlet Fission in Concentrated TIPS-Pentacene Solutions: The Role of Excimers and Aggregates.

The excited-state dynamics of 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)pentacene is investigated to determine the role of excimer and aggregate formation in singlet fission in high-concentration solutions. Photoluminescence spectra were measured by excitation with the evanescent wave in total internal reflection, in order to avoid reabsorption effects. The spectra over nearly two magnitudes of concentration were nearly identical, with no evidence for excimer emission. Time-correlated single-photon counting measurements confirm that the fluorescence lifetime shortens with concentration. The observed rate constant grows at high concentrations, and this effect is modeled in terms of the hard-sphere radial distribution function. NMR measurements confirm that aggregation takes place with a binding constant of between 0.14 and 0.43 M-1. Transient absorption measurements are consistent with a diffusive encounter mechanism for singlet fission, with hints of more rapid singlet fission in aggregates at the highest concentration measured. These data show that excimers do not play the role of an emissive intermediate in exothermic singlet fission in solution and that, while aggregation occurs at higher concentrations, the mechanism of singlet fission remains dominated by diffusive encounters.

A dendronised polymer architecture breaks the conventional inverse relationship between porosity and mechanical properties of hydrogels.

We present a series of synthetic polymer hydrogels which break the traditional correlation between pore size and mechanical properties. The hydrogels are prepared from a dendronised polymer architecture based on a methacrylate copolymer to which poly(amido amine) dendrons are attached. Our approach will be useful in tailoring hydrogels for tissue engineering, controlled drug release, and flexible electronics.

Evaluation of rheological behaviour of flowable dental composites reinforced with low aspect ratio micro-sized glass fibres.

OBJECTIVE: Experimental investigation is carried out to determine the flowability and stickiness of the developed composite material for dental restoration containing low aspect ratio (AR ≤ 100) surface treated micro-sized glass fibres. METHODS: Specimens are manufactured by mixing low AR (50/70/100) micro-sized glass fibres with two different weight fractions (5%/10%) into UDMA/TEGDMA based resin. Particulate filler composite (PFC) containing 55% glass fillers is used as the control group. Dynamic oscillatory strain sweep tests are conducted to analyse the linear viscoelastic behaviour. Solid-to fluidic transition behaviour of dental composites is also calculated in terms of flow and yield stresses. Furthermore, the oscillatory frequency sweep tests are conducted at three different strains (0.5%, 5% and 50%) resembling the positioning of unset paste onto restorations for different real-life clinical situations. Additionally, stickiness of dental composites with handling instrument (steel) and dentine covered with bonding agent is also evaluated. RESULTS: The results suggested the all the FRC groups exhibited non-Newtonian, shear-thinning behaviour. It is further established that inclusion of 5% of 50/70AR fibres into dental composites does not affect the flowability. Simultaneously, stickiness with dentine covered with bonding agent is more for these two compositions as compared to that of handling instrument (steel). SIGNIFICANCE: This study suggest that visco-elastic properties of dental composites are greatly affected by the type of filler (spherical shaped particulate fillers or rod-shaped fibres) as well as fibre weight fraction/fibre AR. This phenomenon can be attributed to the varying interactions between micro-sized fibres of different AR/weight fraction, particulate fillers and monomers.

Ultra-Low Molecular Weight Photoswitchable Hydrogelators.

Two photoswitchable arylazopyrozoles form hydrogels at a concentration of 1.2 % (w/v). With a molecular weight of 258.28 g mol-1 , these are the lowest known molecular weight hydrogelators that respond reversibly to light. Photoswitching of the E- to the Z-form by exposure to 365 nm light results in a macroscopic gel→sol transition; nearly an order of magnitude reduction in the measured elastic and loss moduli. In the case of the meta-arylazopyrozole, cryogenic transmission electron microscopy suggests that the 29±7 nm wide sheets in the E-gel state narrow to 13±2 nm upon photoswitching to the predominantly Z-solution state. Photoswitching for meta-arylazopyrozole is reversible through cycles of 365 nm and 520 nm excitation with little fatigue. The release of a rhodamine B dye encapsulated in gels formed by the arylazopyrozoles is accelerated more than 20-fold upon photoswitching with 365 nm light, demonstrating these materials are suitable for light-controlled cargo release.

Skin protective and regenerative effects of RM191A, a novel superoxide dismutase mimetic.

Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is known to be protective against oxidative stress-mediated skin dysfunction. Here we explore the potential therapeutic activities of RM191A, a novel SOD mimetic, on skin. RM191A is a water-soluble dimeric copper (Cu2+-Cu3+)-centred polyglycine coordination complex. It displays 10-fold higher superoxide quenching activity compared to SOD as well as significant antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activities through beneficial modulation of several significant inflammatory cytokines in vitro and in vivo. We tested the therapeutic potential of RM191A in a topical gel using a human skin explant model and observed that it significantly inhibits UV-induced DNA damage in the epidermis and dermis, including cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPD), 8-oxo-guanine (8-oxoG) and 8-nitroguanine (8NGO). RM191A topical gel is found to be non-toxic, non-teratogenic and readily distributed in the body of mice. Moreover, it significantly accelerates excisional wound healing, reduces 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA)-induced inflammation and attenuates age-associated oxidative stress in skin, demonstrating both skin regenerative and geroprotective properties of RM191A.

A liposome-micelle-hybrid (LMH) oral delivery system for poorly water-soluble drugs: Enhancing solubilisation and intestinal transport.

A novel liposome-micelle-hybrid (LMH) carrier system was developed as a superior oral drug delivery platform compared to conventional liposome or micelle formulations. The optimal LMH system was engineered by encapsulating TPGS micelles in the aqueous core of liposomes and its efficacy for oral delivery was demonstrated using lovastatin (LOV) as a model poorly soluble drug with P-gp (permeability glycoprotein) limited intestinal absorption. LOV-LMH was characterised as unilamellar, spherical vesicles encapsulating micellar structures within the interior aqueous core and showing an average diameter below 200 nm. LMH demonstrated enhanced drug loading, water apparent solubility and extended/controlled release of LOV compared to conventional liposomes and micelles. LMH exhibited enhanced LOV absorption and transportation in a Caco-2 cell monolayer model of the intestine by inhibiting the P-gp transporter system compared to free LOV. The LMH system is a promising novel oral delivery approach for enhancing bioavailability of poorly water-soluble drugs, especially those presenting P-gp effluxes limited absorption.

Correction: Non-reversible heat-induced gelation of a biocompatible Fmoc-hexapeptide in water.

Correction for 'Non-reversible heat-induced gelation of a biocompatible Fmoc-hexapeptide in water' by Jonathan P. Wojciechowski et al., Nanoscale, 2020, 12, 8262-8267, DOI: .

Modulating the Selectivity and Stealth Properties of Ellipsoidal Polymersomes through a Multivalent Peptide Ligand Display.

There is a need for improved nanomaterials to simultaneously target cancer cells and avoid non-specific clearance by phagocytes. An ellipsoidal polymersome system is developed with a unique tunable size and shape property. These particles are functionalized with in-house phage-display cell-targeting peptide to target a medulloblastoma cell line in vitro. Particle association with medulloblastoma cells is modulated by tuning the peptide ligand density on the particles. These polymersomes has low levels of association with primary human blood phagocytes. The stealth properties of the polymersomes are further improved by including the peptide targeting moiety, an effect that is likely driven by the peptide protecting the particles from binding blood plasma proteins. Overall, this ellipsoidal polymersome system provides a promising platform to explore tumor cell targeting in vivo.