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A novel PD-L1 targeting peptide self-assembled nanofibers for sensitive tumor imaging and photothermal immunotherapy in vivo

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Abstract

Programmed death 1 (PD-1) and its ligand PD-L1 are two typical immune checkpoints. Antibody-based immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) strategy targeting PD-1/PD-L1 achieved a significant therapeutic effect on cancer. However, due to the impenetrability of antibody drugs and the occurrence of immune-related adverse events, only a minority of patients benefit from this treatment. Peptides multimerization has been widely proved to be an effective method to improve receptor binding affinity through a multivalent synergistic effect. In this study, we report a novel peptide-aggregation-induced emission (AIE) hybrid supramolecular TAP, which can self-assemble into nanofibers through non-covalent interactions such as hydrogen bonds, with a specific nanomolar affinity to PD-L1 in vivo and in vitro. Combined with near-infrared agents, it can be used for tumor imaging and photothermal therapy, which enables photothermal ablation of cancer cells for generating tumor-associated antigen (TAA) and triggering a series of immunological events. Collectively, our work suggests that synthetic self-assembled peptide nanofibers can be developed as attractive platforms for active photothermal immunotherapies against cancer.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported financially by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 32027801, 81801766, 21775031, and 31870992), the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Nos. XDB36000000 and XDB38010400), Foundation of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission (No. HZ2021006), CAS-JSPS (No. GJHZ2094), Fujian Medical University Foundation for the Introduction of Talents (Nos. XRCZX2017020, XRCZX2019005, and XRCZX2019018), and the Joint Funds for the innovation of science and Technology Fujian Province (No. 2019Y9001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, CAS Key Laboratory of Standardization and Measurement for Nanotechnology, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, 100190, China

    Linping Fu, Chenchen Wu, Zhiyuan Hu & Zihua Wang

  2. School of Nanoscience and Technology, Sino-Danish College, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Linping Fu, Chenchen Wu & Zhiyuan Hu

  3. Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Aging and Neurodegenerative Diseases, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350122, China

    Jianhu Zhang, Zhiyuan Hu & Zihua Wang

  4. School of Chemical Engineering and Pharmacy, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan, 430205, China

    Zhiyuan Hu

  5. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China

    Weizhi Wang

  6. Center for AIE Research, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Polymer Science and Technology, Guangdong Research Center for Interfacial Engineering of Functional Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China

    Dong Wang

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  1. Linping Fu
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  2. Jianhu Zhang
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  3. Chenchen Wu
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  4. Weizhi Wang
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  5. Dong Wang
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  6. Zhiyuan Hu
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  7. Zihua Wang
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Correspondence to Dong Wang, Zhiyuan Hu or Zihua Wang.

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12274_2022_4331_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

A novel PD-L1 targeting peptide self-assembled nanofibers for sensitive tumor imaging and photothermal immunotherapy in vivo

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Fu, L., Zhang, J., Wu, C. et al. A novel PD-L1 targeting peptide self-assembled nanofibers for sensitive tumor imaging and photothermal immunotherapy in vivo. Nano Res. 15, 7286–7294 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4331-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4331-5

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