Luminescent Lanthanide–Collagen Peptide Framework for pH-Controlled Drug Delivery

Abstract

Collagen mimetic scaffolds play a pivotal role in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering due to their extraordinary structural and biological features. We have herein, for the first time, reported the construction of luminescent lanthanide–collagen peptide hybrid three-dimensional nanofibrous scaffolds, which well mimic the characteristic architectural structure of native collagen. Three collagen mimetic peptides, composed of repetitive central (GPO)7 sequences and altered terminal amino acids, have been shown to consistently self-assemble to form biocompatible nanofibers under the trigger of a variety of lanthanide ions, which also functionalize the assembled materials with easily tunable photoluminescence. Furthermore, the collagen peptide–lanthanide hybrid scaffolds possess programmable pH-responsive features. The lanthanide ion-mediated assembly of all three collagen peptides are conveniently and reversibly regulated by pH, while their pH-dependent patterns are finely tuned by the identity of terminal amino acids. Using camptothecin and cefoperazone sodium as two model drugs, the drug-loading and releasing efficiency of the collagen peptide–lanthanide scaffolds are nicely modulated by pH, demonstrating the efficacy of these nanofibrous scaffolds as pH-responsive drug carriers. These novel luminescent collagen peptide–lanthanide scaffolds provide a facile system for pH-controlled drug delivery, suggesting promising applications in the development of therapies for many diseases.

In Situ Imaging of Pathological Collagen by Electrostatic Repulsion-Destabilized Peptide Probes

“…Circular dichroism experiments were performed on an Aviv model 400 spectrophotometer (Applied Photophysics Ltd., England) following previously reported protocols. 40 Peptide solutions of 1 mg/mL (PCTP, PCTP-D1, PCTP-D2, PCTP-D3, PCTP-D4, PCTP-D5, and PCTP-D6) were prepared in phosphate-citric buffer at pH 2.7 or 50 mM phosphate buffer at pH 7.4, respectively. Wavelength scans were carried out from 190 to 280 nm.…”

Tumor Microenvironment–Responsive Peptide-Based Supramolecular Drug Delivery System

“…The extracellular delivery of polar cargos expands the drug pipeline and benefits the clinical trial of drug candidates that exhibit promising activity but are too polar by normal drug criteria. Besides pHLIP, the design strategy that the weak acidity of solution switches the charge state of peptides has been implemented to create a series of pH-responsive DDSs, such as, pH-sensitive polyhistidine (PolyHis) (Zhao et al, 2012 , 2016 ) and collagens (Xu et al, 2016 ; Yang et al, 2017 ; Yao et al, 2019 ).…”

A comparison of the collagen triple helix and coiled‐coil peptide building blocks on metal ion‐mediated supramolecular assembly

“…Variants of this sequence were created by Xiao and coworkers in which the core of the CMP was shortened to POG 7 ( DDColDD ). [ 80 ] This alteration led to the formation of fibrous scaffolds instead of spiraled nano‐ropes upon addition of Ln(III) ions. Moreover, replacing two or three of the four terminal Asp residues with either Trp ( DWColWD ) or Trp and His ( HWColWD ) did not alter the morphology of the assemblies, but led to different acid sensitivity.…”

“…Moreover, replacing two or three of the four terminal Asp residues with either Trp ( DWColWD ) or Trp and His ( HWColWD ) did not alter the morphology of the assemblies, but led to different acid sensitivity. [ 80 ] Xiao and coworkers found that the addition of a GFOGER integrin recognition site into the center of the DDColDD sequence still allowed for a fibrous morphology, and promoted the binding of these scaffolds to HeLa cells. [ 81 ] This binding led to extensive cell spreading, a feature that has been observed when natural collagen materials containing GFOGER sequences are incubated with cells.…”