Enzymatic Self-Assembly of Nanostructures for Theranostics

Abstract

Self-assembly of small molecules or macromolecules through non-covalent or covalent bonds to build up supramolecular nanostructures is a prevalent and important process in nature. While most chemists use small molecules to assemble nanostructures with physical or chemical perturbations, nature adopts enzymes to catalyze the reaction to assemble biological, functional nanostructures with high efficiency and specificity. Although enzymatic self-assembly of nanostructures has been remained challenging for chemists, there are still a few examples of using important enzymes to initiate the self-assembly of nanostructures for diagnosis or therapy of certain diseases because down-regulation or overexpression of certain enzymes always associates with abnormalities of tissues/organs or diseases in living body. Herein, we introduce the concept of enzymatic self-assembly and illustrate the design and application of enzyme-catalyzed or -regulated formation of nanostructures for theranostics.

Self-assembled liposomal nanoparticles in photodynamic therapy

“…They discussed a self-assembly mechanism from protein to patchy colloids following a simple theoretical model, the Kern-Frenkel model (22) describing a fluid of colloidal spherical particles with a pre-defined number and distribution of solvophobic and solvophilic regions on their surface. Enzymatic self-assembly is another concept and examples include esterase based self-assembly of nanofibers for regulating cell death, phosphatase based self-assembly of Taxol ® -nanofibers for cancer therapy, hemolysin catalyzed self-assembly of nanofibers for immobilizing laminin to treat extra cellular matrix (ECM) diseases and application of enzyme-catalyzed or regulated formation of nanostructures for diagnosis and theranostics therapy (18).…”

Recent advances in cell imaging and cytotoxicity of intracellular stimuli-responsive nanomaterials

“…[53]. Copyright 2015 American Chemical Society therapy [47] or theranostics [48]. Moreover, peptides [49], proteins [50], small molecular hydrogelators [51] or aromatic fluorophores [52] can be adopted as building blocks for intracellular self-assembly as well.…”

Self-assembled liposomal nanoparticles in photodynamic therapy

“…Researchers have used the self-assembled mechanisms to produce nanoparticles with applications in RNA nanotechnology (16), proteins (17), enzymes (18), silica mesoporous materials (19) and microfluidic particle crystals (20). Recently, Giacometti et al (21) explained the self-assembly mechanism in colloids.…”

“…They discussed a self-assembly mechanism from protein to patchy colloids following a simple theoretical model, the Kern-Frenkel model (22) describing a fluid of colloidal spherical particles with a pre-defined number and distribution of solvophobic and solvophilic regions on their surface. Enzymatic self-assembly is another concept and examples include esterase based self-assembly of nanofibers for regulating cell death, phosphatase based self-assembly of Taxol ® -nanofibers for cancer therapy, hemolysin catalyzed self-assembly of nanofibers for immobilizing laminin to treat extra cellular matrix (ECM) diseases and application of enzyme-catalyzed or regulated formation of nanostructures for diagnosis and theranostics therapy (18). …”