A light-controlled dextran nano-immunomodulator amplifies immunogenic cell death for cancer immunotherapy.

Immunogenic cell death (ICD) is a programmed modality of regulated cell death that induces strong adaptive immune responses, which is severely related to the drug release kinetics of nanotherapeutics. Here, we report a light-controlled polysaccharide nano-immunomodulator (Dex-NB-CPT) with enhanced ICD induction for cancer immunotherapy. Dex-NB-CPT does not self-assemble into nanoparticles as a single-molecular micelle, and releases ICD inducer camptothecin (CPT) rapidly via a photocleavable linker under light illumination, avoiding the hindrance of nanoparticle disassembly and physical encapsulation to realize efficient drug release.

Multifunctional polysaccharide nanoprobes for biological imaging.

Imaging and tracking biological targets or processes play an important role in revealing molecular mechanisms and disease states. Bioimaging via optical, nuclear, or magnetic resonance techniques enables high resolution, high sensitivity, and high depth imaging from the whole animal down to single cells via advanced functional nanoprobes. To overcome the limitations of single-modality imaging, multimodality nanoprobes have been engineered with a variety of imaging modalities and functionalities.

Liver-targeting MRI contrast agent based on galactose functionalized o-carboxymethyl chitosan.

Commercial gadolinium (Gd)-based contrast agents (GBCAs) play important role in clinical diagnostic of hepatocellular carcinoma, but their diagnostic efficacy remained improved. As small molecules, the imaging contrast and window of GBCAs is limited by low liver targeting and retention. Herein, we developed a liver-targeting gadolinium (Ⅲ) chelated macromolecular MRI contrast agent based on galactose functionalized o-carboxymethyl chitosan, namely, CS-Ga-(Gd-DTPA), to improve hepatocyte uptake and liver retention.

A Biomimetic Emitter Inspired from Green Fluorescent Protein.

The unique tripeptide structure of green fluorescent protein (GFP), a Ser-Tyr-Gly motif, generates the mature chromophore in situ to define the emission profiles of GFP. Here, we describe the rational design and discovery of a biomimetic fluorescent emitter, MBP, by mimicking the key structure of the Ser-Tyr-Gly motif. Through systematically tailoring the tripeptide, a family of four chromophores were engineered, while only MBP exhibited bright fluorescence in different fluid solvents with highly enhanced quantum yields.

Multifunctional nanoprobes for macrophage imaging.

Imaging and tracking macrophage behaviors in vivo are essential to reveal its biological function and fate in various diseases. Small molecular probes suffer from poor macrophage targeting and retention, rapid clearance, and deficient metabolizing stability. To overcome these limitations, a variety of functional nanoprobes have been developed for targeted imaging of macrophages in divergent diseases such as cancer, atherosclerosis and obesity.