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Targeting Aurora Kinase A (AURKA) to modulate RalA activation offers a promising strategy for tumor suppression in Ras-independent and Ras-dependent cancers. However, clinical use of the AURKA inhibitor MLN8237 (Alisertib) is limited by its hydrophobicity and poor water solubility. To overcome these limitations, here, we developed an enzyme-biodegradable unimolecular micelle (UMM) nanoparticle to deliver MLN8237 (NP) and evaluated its therapeutic efficacy in tumor xenograft models. NP selectively inhibited AURKA, downregulated pSer194 RalA, and suppressed anchorage-independent growth in SKOV3 (Ras-independent) and MIA PaCa-2 (Ras-dependent) cancer cells. Nanoparticles loaded with sulforhodamine B (NP) and IR780 (NP) confirmed enhanced cellular uptake and tumor localization, respectively. Improved solubility and bioavailability enabled low-dose parenteral delivery of MLN8237, achieving significant tumor regression compared to free drug. This correlated with inhibition of AURKA and RalA phosphorylation (pSer194RalA) in both tumors. Together, they highlight the therapeutic potential of NP in targeting AURKA-RalA crosstalk in tumor xenografts.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.biomac.5c00366 | DOI Listing |
Adv Mater
August 2025
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, 1088 Xueyuan Blvd., Nanshan District, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518055, P. R. China.
π-Conjugated fluorophores show great potential for NIR-II bio-imaging owing to their superior brightness and photostability, yet their clinical translation has been hindered by suboptimal pharmacokinetics. To address this issue, a strategy is developed to tailor the in vivo behavior of π-conjugate fluorophores by breaking π-π stacking in polymer brush-engineered unimolecular micelles. This approach marks a significant shift from traditional methods of tuning micelles, which rely on varying the hydrophilic-to-hydrophobic ratios and are often ineffective for π-conjugated systems due to the dominance of π-π interactions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFScience
August 2025
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
Supramolecular assemblies hold great promise for advanced chiral materials because of their structural diversity and dynamic features, but their low chiroptical activity limits practical applications. We report hierarchical supramolecular assemblies with giant chiroptical activity and mechanical attributes achieved through coassembly of achiral amphiphilic unimolecular micelles and chiral additives. Chiral fibrillar assemblies emerge from the nanostructured environment imposed by the micelles, driven by progressive chirality transfer through multiple hydrogen bonds between components.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiomacromolecules
August 2025
Department of Biology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune, Dr. Homi Bhabha Road, Pune, Maharashtra 411008, India.
Targeting Aurora Kinase A (AURKA) to modulate RalA activation offers a promising strategy for tumor suppression in Ras-independent and Ras-dependent cancers. However, clinical use of the AURKA inhibitor MLN8237 (Alisertib) is limited by its hydrophobicity and poor water solubility. To overcome these limitations, here, we developed an enzyme-biodegradable unimolecular micelle (UMM) nanoparticle to deliver MLN8237 (NP) and evaluated its therapeutic efficacy in tumor xenograft models.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSmall
August 2025
Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER Pune), Dr. Homi Bhabha Road, Pune, Maharashtra, 411008, India.
Uncontrolled rapture of prodrug nano-formulation under physiological concentration gradient is a bottleneck in the effective delivery of anticancer drugs to solid tumors in vivo. The present investigation reports macromolecular nano-compartmentalization in single polymer chain micellar nanoparticle (or unimolecular micelle nanoparticle, UMNp) and demonstrates its therapeutic efficacies in pancreatic cancer xenograft mouse model. The UMNp is engineered in a six-arm enzymatic-biodegradable polycaprolactone star-polymer by employing a divergent approach using identical chemical constituents but varying the arms-lengths.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdv Sci (Weinh)
July 2025
School of Science and Engineering, Shenzhen Institute of Aggregate Science and Technology, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Functional Aggregate Materials, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518172, P. R. China.
Carbon dots (CDs) are promising fluorescent nanomaterials, however, they are often hindered by aggregation caused quenching (ACQ) in solid-state application because of close π-π stacking interactions. Furthermore, the challenges still exist in the development of CDs-based solid-state fluorescent materials with stable structure and high fluorescence intensity. To address this challenge, a general and robust polymer directed nanoconfined self-assembly strategy is developed, enabling the fabrication of regular morphology, structurally ultra-stable and solid-state fluorescent CDs assemblies using hydrophilic star-liked di-block copolymer unimolecular micelles as templates.
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