Metastatic tumours are complex ecosystems; a community of multiple cell types, including cancerous cells, fibroblasts, and immune cells that exist within a supportive and specific microenvironment. The interplay of these cells, together with tissue specific chemical, structural and temporal signals within a three-dimensional (3D) habitat, direct tumour cell behavior, a subtlety that can be easily lost in 2D tissue culture. Here, we investigate a significantly improved tool, consisting of a novel matrix of functionally programmed peptide sequences, self-assembled into a scaffold to enable the growth and the migration of multicellular lung tumour spheroids, as proof-of-concept. This 3D functional model aims to mimic the biological, chemical, and contextual cues of an in vivo tumor more closely than a typically used, unstructured hydrogel, allowing spatial and temporal activity modelling. This approach shows promise as a cancer model, enhancing current understandings of how tumours progress and spread over time within their microenvironment.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/gels8060332 | DOI Listing |
Langmuir
January 2025
Biomimetic Materials and Tissue Engineering Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, United States.
The self-assembly of phenylalanine (F)-based peptides is a critical area of research with potential implications for the development of advanced biomaterials and technologies. Previous studies indicate that homo-oligopeptides with F-X residues (X = 1 to 6) can self-assemble into diverse nano-microstructures, but the role of oligopeptide chain length on this process remains unclear. This review investigates the role of F-X chain length on self-assembly processes and morphologies, considering the effect of incubation conditions and the capping group at the N and/or C terminals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTalanta
December 2024
Engineering Research Center of Smart Microsensors and Microsystems, Ministry of Education, College of Electronics and Information, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310018, China; China-Israel Polypeptide Device and Application Technology Joint Research Center, Hangzhou, 310027, China. Electronic address:
Nitrogen dioxide (NO) is an important contaminant that poses a severe threat to environmental sustainability. Traditional inorganic NO gas detectors are generally used under harsh operating conditions and employ environmentally unfriendly resources, thus preventing widespread practical applications. Herein, self-assembled peptide microtubes (SPMTs) are combined with SnO nanoparticles (NPs) to develop a bioinspired NO gas sensor.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Biol Macromol
December 2024
School of Basic Medical Sciences, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, China. Electronic address:
The self-assembled peptide RADA16-I (RADARADARADARADA) has been widely used in biomaterials. However, studies on the practical application of self-assembled peptide hydrogels loaded with bioactive peptides are still insufficient. In this study, we successfully prepared the peptide nanofiber gel RGJ by incorporating the bioactive peptides A8SGLP-1 (G) and Jagged-1 (J) into RADA16-I (R) in specific ratios.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Biol Macromol
December 2024
Department of Pharmacy, School of Medicine, University of Naples Federico II, Via Domenico Montesano 49, 80131 Napoli, Italy. Electronic address:
Peptide-based self-assembled nanosystems show great promise as non-viral gene and siRNA delivery vectors. In the current study, we designed and functionalized nanofibers for the delivery of siRNA, targeting and silencing EGFR gene overexpressed in triple-negative breast cancer. The nanofiber-mediated siRNA delivery was characterized in terms of zeta potential, morphology, and structural stability by circular dichroism spectroscopy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Biomed Eng
December 2024
CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, P. R. China.
The development of prophylactic cancer vaccines typically involves the selection of combinations of tumour-associated antigens, tumour-specific antigens and neoantigens. Here we show that membranes from induced pluripotent stem cells can serve as a tumour-antigen pool, and that a nanoparticle vaccine consisting of self-assembled commercial adjuvants wrapped by such membranes robustly stimulated innate immunity, evaded antigen-specific tolerance and activated B-cell and T-cell responses, which were mediated by epitopes from the abundant number of antigens shared between the membranes of tumour cells and pluripotent stem cells. In mice, the vaccine elicited systemic antitumour memory T-cell and B-cell responses as well as tumour-specific immune responses after a tumour challenge, and inhibited the progression of melanoma, colon cancer, breast cancer and post-operative lung metastases.
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