Multivalent Conjugates of Sonic Hedgehog Accelerate Diabetic Wound Healing.

Despite their preclinical promise, few recombinant growth factors have been fully developed into effective therapies, in part, due to the short interval of therapeutic activity after administration. To address this problem, we developed nanoscale polymer conjugates for multivalent presentation of therapeutic proteins that enhance the activation of targeted cellular responses. As an example of this technology, we conjugated multiple Sonic hedgehog (Shh) proteins onto individual hyaluronic acid biopolymers to generate multivalent protein clusters at defined ratios (i.

The effect of multivalent Sonic hedgehog on differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into dopaminergic and GABAergic neurons.

Stem cell differentiation is regulated by complex repertoires of signaling ligands which often use multivalent interactions, where multiple ligands tethered to one entity interact with multiple cellular receptors to yield oligomeric complexes. One such ligand is Sonic hedgehog (Shh), whose posttranslational lipid modifications and assembly into multimers enhance its biological potency, potentially through receptor clustering. Investigations of Shh typically utilize recombinant, monomeric protein, and thus the impact of multivalency on ligand potency is unexplored.

Multivalent ligands control stem cell behaviour in vitro and in vivo.

There is broad interest in designing nanostructured materials that can interact with cells and regulate key downstream functions. In particular, materials with nanoscale features may enable control over multivalent interactions, which involve the simultaneous binding of multiple ligands on one entity to multiple receptors on another and are ubiquitous throughout biology. Cellular signal transduction of growth factor and morphogen cues (which have critical roles in regulating cell function and fate) often begins with such multivalent binding of ligands, either secreted or cell-surface-tethered to target cell receptors, leading to receptor clustering.

Molecular characterization of multivalent bioconjugates by size-exclusion chromatography with multiangle laser light scattering.

The degree of substitution and valency of bioconjugate reaction products are often poorly judged or require multiple time- and product-consuming chemical characterization methods. These aspects become critical when analyzing and optimizing the potency of costly polyvalent bioactive conjugates. In this study, size-exclusion chromatography with multiangle laser light scattering was paired with refractive index detection and ultraviolet spectroscopy (SEC-MALS-RI-UV) to characterize the reaction efficiency, degree of substitution, and valency of the products of conjugation of either peptides or proteins to a biopolymer scaffold, i.