Philipp Loibner, David Bučak-Gasser, Katharina Schober, Tobias Steindorfer, Monika Brandtner, Tobias Dorn, Tanja Wrodnigg, Dmytro Neshchadin, Georg Gescheidt-Demner, Matej Bračič, Florian Lackner, Tamilselvan Mohan, Karin Stana Kleinschek, Rupert Kargl
{"title":"Chemo-Enzymatic Synthesis of Viscoelastic Pseudopeptidoglycan Networks.","authors":"Philipp Loibner, David Bučak-Gasser, Katharina Schober, Tobias Steindorfer, Monika Brandtner, Tobias Dorn, Tanja Wrodnigg, Dmytro Neshchadin, Georg Gescheidt-Demner, Matej Bračič, Florian Lackner, Tamilselvan Mohan, Karin Stana Kleinschek, Rupert Kargl","doi":"10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.5c00014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.5c00014","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Bacterial peptidoglycans (PGs) are essential targets for antibiotics and immune cells. Chemical methods to reproduce PGs semisynthetically are tedious and wasteful. In this work, we describe a new approach to form pseudo-PGs (PPGs) using the protease papain and custom-made peptides conjugated to a glycan. The kinetics of formation is monitored by rheology and <sup>1</sup>H NMR. Viscoelastic gels of controlled strength are formed, depending on the temperature and the number of peptide bridges between the glycan chains. We propose that the new method has a high impact on biomaterials research, since it could be used to deliver peptides, test antibiotic efficacy, or investigate human immune cell response.</p>","PeriodicalId":29,"journal":{"name":"Bioconjugate Chemistry","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144473408","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bioconjugate ChemistryPub Date : 2025-06-18Epub Date: 2025-05-24DOI: 10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.5c00191
Susan Varghese, Merin K Abraham, Geneva Indongo, Greeshma Rajeevan, Arathy B K Kala, Aishwarya Lekshman, Sony George
{"title":"In Vivo Imaging of Pancreatic Cancer in BALB/c Mice Using Erlotinib-Conjugated Carbon Quantum Dots Derived from 1,4,5,8-Tetraminoanthraquinone.","authors":"Susan Varghese, Merin K Abraham, Geneva Indongo, Greeshma Rajeevan, Arathy B K Kala, Aishwarya Lekshman, Sony George","doi":"10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.5c00191","DOIUrl":"10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.5c00191","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most aggressive malignancies with a poor prognosis due to late-stage diagnosis and limited treatment options. Fluorescence imaging has emerged as a valuable tool for early detection and targeted imaging of pancreatic cancer, offering improved visualization of tumors at the molecular level. Among various fluorescence techniques, fluorescence imaging using longer-wavelength nanomaterials holds significant promise due to their deeper tissue penetration and reduced background autofluorescence. In this study, we report the development of red-emitting carbon quantum dots designed for targeted imaging of pancreatic cancer. These carbon quantum dots were functionalized with erlotinib to enhance cancer cell specificity. In vitro biological evaluations demonstrated minimal cytotoxicity, prompting further investigations in vivo. Using BALB/c mice as model organisms, in vivo imaging showcased the efficacy of the developed probe for targeted pancreatic cancer detection, suggesting its potential as a robust tool for cancer diagnostics and imaging.</p>","PeriodicalId":29,"journal":{"name":"Bioconjugate Chemistry","volume":" ","pages":"1329-1339"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144135889","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bioconjugate ChemistryPub Date : 2025-06-18Epub Date: 2025-05-18DOI: 10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.5c00030
Marta Tuszynska, Joanna Skopinska-Wisniewska, Mateusz Bartniak, Anna Bajek
{"title":"Conceptualization and Preliminary Characterization of Poloxamer-Based Hydrogels for Biomedical Applications.","authors":"Marta Tuszynska, Joanna Skopinska-Wisniewska, Mateusz Bartniak, Anna Bajek","doi":"10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.5c00030","DOIUrl":"10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.5c00030","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Poloxamers are widely used in biomedical applications, but their effectiveness depends on achieving an optimal sol-gel phase transition near body temperature. This study evaluates three different poloxamer mixtures for their potential in treating meniscus tears, focusing on gel formation, injectability, and cell compatibility. The rheological properties, cytotoxicity assessments, and cellular migration experiments were studied using NIH/3T3 fibroblast cells as the standard experimental model for primary research. The poloxamer hydrogels showed properties well suited to injectable or drug delivery systems. Specifically, the combination of Synperonic F108 and Poloxamer 188 tended to show less adhesion and more aggregation, followed by a greater number of viable cells, suggesting its utility as a coating or foundational matrix. Concurrently, the Kolliphor 407 and Poloxamer 188 combination exhibited increased viscosity, maintaining a gel state at physiological temperature. Its biocompatibility indicated the potential for injectable controlled-release systems for musculoskeletal injuries. Our findings demonstrate that the poloxamer concentration and composition significantly influence their biomedical applications. These triblock copolymer systems indicated useful characteristics for surgical applications, such as favorable sol-gel transition kinetics and biocompatibility, suggesting potential applications in osteoarticular regeneration.</p>","PeriodicalId":29,"journal":{"name":"Bioconjugate Chemistry","volume":" ","pages":"1169-1179"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12186842/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144092009","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Design, Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation of a Novel Long-Acting Human Complement C3 Inhibitor Synthesized via the PASylation-Lipidation Modular (PLM) Platform.","authors":"Chengcheng Wang, Yapeng Wang, Yu Duan, Yuanzhen Dong, Haoju Hua, Huixin Cui, Shuaiyi Huang, Zongqing Huang, Jianguang Lu, Chunyong Ding, Zhengyan Cai, Jun Feng","doi":"10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.5c00108","DOIUrl":"10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.5c00108","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The complement system is essential for immune defense, but its dysregulation contributes to various complement-mediated disorders, including paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH). <b>CP40</b> (a cyclic peptide also known as AMY101), effectively inhibits complement activation by preventing the initial binding of the C3 substrate to convertase. Despite its potency, <b>CP40</b> has a very short plasma half-life when unbound to human C3, necessitating frequent dosing. We developed a novel PASylation-Lipidation Modular (PLM) platform. This platform incorporates a solubilizing PAS module and a half-life-extending lipid moiety into <b>CP40</b> via a chemical linker. Systematic optimization of the spacer and lipid components in PLM-modified <b>CP40</b> analogues identified <b>6C1</b> as a lead compound. Compared to <b>CP40</b>, <b>6C1</b> exhibited a 5-fold increase in antihemolytic potency in the classical complement pathway and a 6.3-fold improvement in solubility. <i>In vivo</i> studies demonstrated that PLM-<b>CP40</b> analogues possess superior pharmacokinetic properties, with a 15.6-fold extension in half-life relative to unmodified <b>CP40</b>. Mechanistic studies revealed that the PLM platform extends half-life by interacting with albumin, which serves as a circulating depot for the compound. Surface plasmon resonance analysis and hemolysis assays postalbumin incubation demonstrated that PLM modifications maintain receptor affinity by strategically positioning the albumin-binding moiety away from the peptide region, preserving its biological activity. In a clinically relevant <i>in vitro</i> model of complement-mediated hemolysis in PNH, <b>6C1</b> effectively reduced erythrocyte lysis. The PLM platform thus offers a versatile strategy for enhancing peptide therapeutics by improving solubility, extending circulation time, and increasing efficacy, broadening their therapeutic potential.</p>","PeriodicalId":29,"journal":{"name":"Bioconjugate Chemistry","volume":" ","pages":"1257-1272"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143951384","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bioconjugate ChemistryPub Date : 2025-06-18Epub Date: 2025-05-21DOI: 10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.4c00575
Tsvetelina H Baryakova, Chia-Chien Hsu, Laura Segatori, Kevin J McHugh
{"title":"Novel Approaches to Label the Surface of <i>S. aureus</i> with DBCO for Click Chemistry-Mediated Deposition of Sensitive Cargo.","authors":"Tsvetelina H Baryakova, Chia-Chien Hsu, Laura Segatori, Kevin J McHugh","doi":"10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.4c00575","DOIUrl":"10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.4c00575","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The strain-promoted alkyne-azide cycloaddition (SPAAC) reaction can be used to modify the surface of bacteria for a variety of applications including drug delivery, biosensing, and imaging. This is usually accomplished by first installing a small azide group within the peptidoglycan and then delivering exogenous cargo (e.g., a protein or nanoparticle) modified with a cyclooctyne group, such as dibenzocyclooctyne (DBCO), for <i>in situ</i> conjugation. However, DBCO is comparatively bulky and hydrophobic, increasing the propensity of some payloads to aggregate. In this study, we sought to invert this paradigm by exploring two novel strategies for incorporating DBCO into the peptidoglycan of <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> and compared them to an established approach using DBCO-vancomycin. We demonstrate that DBCO-modified small molecules belonging to all three classes─a sortase peptide substrate (LPETG), two d-alanine derivatives, and vancomycin─can selectively label the <i>S. aureus</i> surface to varying degrees. In contrast to DBCO-vancomycin, the DBCO-d-alanine variants do not adversely affect the growth of <i>S. aureus</i> or lead to off-target labeling or toxicity in HEK293T or RAW 264.7 cells. Finally, we show that, unlike IgG3-Fc labeled with DBCO groups, IgG3-Fc labeled with azide groups is stable (i.e., remains water-soluble) under normal storage conditions, retains its ability to bind the immune receptor CD64, and can be successfully attached to the surface of DBCO-modified <i>S. aureus</i>. We believe that the labeling strategies explored herein will expand the paradigm of specific, nontoxic SPAAC-mediated labeling of the surface of <i>S. aureus</i> and other Gram-positive bacteria, opening the door for new applications using azide-modified cargo.</p>","PeriodicalId":29,"journal":{"name":"Bioconjugate Chemistry","volume":" ","pages":"1157-1168"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144118376","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Luke Wharton, Scott W. McNeil, Harrison Meeres, Diduo Zhang, Aidan Ingham, Helen Merkens, Maryam Osooly, Cristina Rodríguez-Rodríguez, François Bénard and Hua Yang*,
{"title":"","authors":"Luke Wharton, Scott W. McNeil, Harrison Meeres, Diduo Zhang, Aidan Ingham, Helen Merkens, Maryam Osooly, Cristina Rodríguez-Rodríguez, François Bénard and Hua Yang*, ","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":29,"journal":{"name":"Bioconjugate Chemistry","volume":"36 6","pages":"XXX-XXX XXX-XXX"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.5c00129","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144429462","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bioconjugate ChemistryPub Date : 2025-06-18Epub Date: 2025-05-29DOI: 10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.5c00156
Quentin Vicentini, Dennis Hekman, Deepak Bhatt, Rouven Stulz, Mahya Dezfouli, Peter Gennemark, Nicola Guzzi, Naoko Toki, Bojana Lazovic, Carolina Tängemo, Shalini Andersson, Samir El Andaloussi, Anders Dahlén
{"title":"Multimeric Conjugates Using Engineered Peptide Scaffolds for Efficient siRNA Delivery.","authors":"Quentin Vicentini, Dennis Hekman, Deepak Bhatt, Rouven Stulz, Mahya Dezfouli, Peter Gennemark, Nicola Guzzi, Naoko Toki, Bojana Lazovic, Carolina Tängemo, Shalini Andersson, Samir El Andaloussi, Anders Dahlén","doi":"10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.5c00156","DOIUrl":"10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.5c00156","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Oligonucleotide therapeutics (ONT) traditionally involve a single targeting moiety per oligonucleotide when conjugated for organ delivery. Multimerization represents a novel approach by connecting multiple ONTs to a single scaffold, thereby influencing the drug's activity and biophysical properties <i>in vivo</i>. Recently, others have demonstrated the efficacy of this strategy, showing enhanced tissue retention and extended silencing with the capability to target multiple genes simultaneously. The investigation of diverse multimeric designs is thus an exciting opportunity to explore the delivery of the ONT. In this study, we engineered a versatile peptide branching unit able to link up to four small interfering RNAs together. We conjugated a GalNAc targeting moiety to these scaffolds for liver hepatocyte delivery and assessed their silencing activity. Our approach was further expanded to explore different peptide architectures (linear versus cyclized) and additional functionalities, including endosomal escape domains and dual target silencing. We then evaluated the constructs via subcutaneous and intravenous (i.v.) administration in mice. Notably, the intravenous administration of multimeric siRNA GalNAc demonstrated potent silencing in the liver and significantly affected liver-to-kidney biodistribution. Our findings suggest that peptides as branching units offer a promising pathway for ONT multimerization, advancing the challenges of drug delivery.</p>","PeriodicalId":29,"journal":{"name":"Bioconjugate Chemistry","volume":" ","pages":"1299-1310"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12183678/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144179689","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}