Reliability of In Vivo Creatine-Weighted Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer (CrCEST) MRI in Calf Skeletal Muscle of Healthy Volunteers at 3 T.

Background: Skeletal muscle mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (mtOXPHOS) is important for ATP generation and its dysfunction leads to exercise intolerance. Phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy (P-MRS) is a useful, noninvasive technique for mtOXPHOS assessment but has limitations. Creatine-weighted chemical exchange saturation transfer (CrCEST) MRI is a potential alternative to assess muscle bioenergetics.

Nanostructured lipopeptide-based membranomimetics for stabilizing bacteriorhodopsin.

Nanostructured 7-9-residue cyclic and unstructured lipopeptide-based facial detergents have been engineered to stabilize the model integral membrane protein, bacteriorhodopsin. Formation of a cylindrical-type micelle assembly induced by facial amphipathic lipopeptides resembles a biological membrane more effectively than conventional micelles. The hydrophobic face of this cylindrical-type micelle provides extended stability to the membrane protein and the hydrophilic surface interacts with an aqueous environment.

Engineered vitamin E-tethered non-immunogenic facial lipopeptide for developing improved siRNA based combination therapy against metastatic breast cancer.

RNA interference based therapeutic gene silencing is an emerging platform for managing highly metastatic breast cancer. Cytosolic delivery of functional siRNA remains the key obstacle for efficient RNAi therapy. To overcome the challenges of siRNA delivery, we have engineered a vitamin E-tethered, short, optimum protease stabilized facial lipopeptide based non-immunogenic, biocompatible siRNA transporter to facilitate the clinical translation in future.

Harnessing Peptide-Functionalized Multivalent Gold Nanorods for Promoting Enhanced Gene Silencing and Managing Breast Cancer Metastasis.

Small interfering RNA (siRNA) has become the cornerstone against undruggable targets and for managing metastatic breast cancer. However, an effective gene silencing approach is faced with a major challenge due to the delivery problem. In our present study, we have demonstrated efficient siRNA delivery, superior gene silencing, and inhibition of metastasis in triple-negative breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231) using rod-shaped (aspect ratio: 4) multivalent peptide-functionalized gold nanoparticles and compared them to monovalent free peptide doses.

Emerging concepts in designing next-generation multifunctional nanomedicine for cancer treatment.

Nanotherapy has emerged as an improved anticancer therapeutic strategy to circumvent the harmful side effects of chemotherapy. It has been proven to be beneficial to offer multiple advantages, including their capacity to carry different therapeutic agents, longer circulation time and increased therapeutic index with reduced toxicity. Over time, nanotherapy evolved in terms of their designing strategies like geometry, size, composition or chemistry to circumvent the biological barriers.

Engineered Histidine-Enriched Facial Lipopeptides for Enhanced Intracellular Delivery of Functional siRNA to Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells.

Cytosolic delivery of functional siRNA remains the major challenge to develop siRNA-based therapeutics. Designing clinically safe and effective siRNA transporter to deliver functional siRNA across the plasma and endosomal membrane remains a key hurdle. With the aim of improving endosomal release, we have designed cyclic and linear peptide-based transporters having an Arg-His-Arg template.

Engineered isopeptide bond stabilized fibrin inspired nanoscale peptide based sealants for efficient blood clotting.

Designing biologically inspired nanoscale molecular assembly with desired functionality is a challenging endeavour. Here we report the designing of fibrin-inspired nanostructured peptide based sealants which facilitate remarkably fast entrapping of blood corpuscles (~28 seconds) in contrast to fibrin (~56 seconds). Our engineered sealants are stabilized by lysine-aspartate ionic interactions and also by N(γ-glutamyl) lysine isopeptide bond mediated covalent interaction.

Engineered Nanostructured Facial Lipopeptide as Highly Efficient Molecular Transporter.

Designing an effective peptide based molecular transporter for the intracellular delivery of hydrophilic therapeutic biomacromolecules remains a considerable challenge. Highly basic oligoarginine and lipidated arginine rich cell penetrating peptides have been reported in the literature as molecular transporters, which were extensively used for cellular internalization of significantly large biopharmaceuticals. However, oligoarginine based molecular transporters with l-arginine residues pose significant challenges due to proteolytic instability and limited stability of noncovalent peptide-cargo nanocomplexes.