Themed collection Biomimetic Therapeutics

Yongzhuo Huang and Jianqing Gao introduce the Biomaterials Science themed issue on biomimetic therapeutics.

Protein cages found in nature have evolved for a variety of purposes and this review focuses on how they are being co-opted for use in immunotherapy and therapeutic delivery.

Biomimetic hydrogels work as tissue engineering scaffolds by recapitulating chemical cues and mimicking spatiotemporal characteristics of the native extracellular matrix.

This review summarizes recent advances in the applications of living cells as drug carriers or active drugs for anticancer drug delivery and cancer therapy.

The design strategies of particle adjuvants by mimicking natural pathogens to strengthen their interaction with antigen-presenting cells.

Antibiotic drugs have revolutionized the field of medicine for almost 90 years. However, continued use has led to the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria. To combat these bacteria, biomimetic material strategies have been investigated.

This review summarizes the biological properties of biomimetic DDSs and their applications in the treatment of CNS diseases.

Viruses, with special architecture and unique biological nature, can be utilized for various biomedical applications.

Supramolecular peptide assemblies can mimic natural viruses and serve as well-defined, dynamic and multifunctional nanoplatforms for cancer immunotherapy, where the peptide segments act as antigens, adjuvants and carriers.

Herein we provide a state-of-the-art review on the current progress of biomimetic particulate oral delivery systems.

In this review, we summarize various applications of biomimetic carriers in modulating immune responses and discuss the future perspectives.

The present review outlines the methods designing self-assembling peptide-based NDDs for small molecule drugs, with an emphasis on the different drug delivery strategies and their applications in using peptides and peptide conjugates.

We engineered a human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) affibody to the surface of cell membrane nanovesicles (A-NVs) in a ligand-oriented manner and loaded them with indocyanine green (ICG) as precision theranostics for PHCC treatment.

For mRNA mediated cancer immunotherapy, Pam3 was incorporated as an adjuvant within lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) with OVA mRNA.

A new insulin analog has been obtained by modifying insulin with forskolin (designated as insulin-F), a glucose transporter (Glut) inhibitor. Insulin-F is capable of binding to Glut on the plasma membrane in a glucose-dependent manner.

While highly promising in medicine, gene therapy requires delivery agents to protect and target nucleic acid therapeutics.

Combining nanozymes and bacteria to eliminate dental biofilms in a mixed-species model.

Cytosine endows HEMA hydrogels with affinity for antioxidants, such as transferulic acid (TA), having complementary hydrogen bonding and π–π stacking ability. The affinity was reinforced with EGPEM, suggesting molecular cleft-like binding sites.

In this study, we sought to design a bionanomaterial that could exert anticancer effects against primary tumors and protect against rechallenged tumors via photodynamic immunotherapy.

A cell-based biomimetic delivery system characterized by its “Trojan horse” property is developed, in which the PDA-Ce6 nanoparticles were loaded in the MSCs for tumor-targeted delivery and combination PDT/PTT for retarding lung melanoma metastasis.

Carotid artery injection of DiDBV2-Fe into glioblastoma-bearing mice and rats potentially for fluorescence-guided tumor surgery leads to significant accumulation and retention by the brain tumors.

Biologically produced reactive oxygen species (ROS) are important signaling molecules in the human body.

Synthetic organic and inorganic carriers often have limitations associated with problematic targeting ability or non-optimized pharmacokinetics, and, therefore, they have restricted therapeutic potential.

Growth factor delivery is often challenging due to their short half-life, low stability, and rapid deactivation. Here, we engineered novel biomimetic proteoglycan nanocarriers for the immobilization and controlled release of growth factors.