抗原变异可使得多种致病微生物易于逃避宿主免疫应答。表达在感染红细胞表面的恶性疟原虫红细胞表面蛋白1（PfPMP1）与感染红细胞、内皮细胞、树突状细胞以及胎盘的单个或多个受体作用，在黏附及免疫逃避中起关键的作用。每个单倍体基因组var基因家族编码约60种成员，通过启动转录不同的var基因变异体为抗原变异提供了分子基础。

疟原虫var基因转换速率变化导致抗原变异[英]／Paul H, Robert P, Christodoulou Z, et al//Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Nanomedicine and nano delivery systems are a relatively new but rapidly developing science where materials in the nanoscale range are employed to serve as means of diagnostic tools or to deliver therapeutic agents to specific targeted sites in a controlled manner Nanotechnology offers multiple benefits in treating chronic human diseases by site-specific, and target-oriented delivery of precise medicines Recently, there are a number of outstanding applications of the nanomedicine (chemotherapeutic agents, biological agents, immunotherapeutic agents etc) in the treatment of various diseases The current review, presents an updated summary of recent advances in the field of nanomedicines and nano based drug delivery systems through comprehensive scrutiny of the discovery and application of nanomaterials in improving both the efficacy of novel and old drugs (eg, natural products) and selective diagnosis through disease marker molecules The opportunities and challenges of nanomedicines in drug delivery from synthetic/natural sources to their clinical applications are also discussed In addition, we have included information regarding the trends and perspectives in nanomedicine area

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Nano based drug delivery systems: recent developments and future prospects

■ Abstract Apoptosis is a genetically programmed, morphologically distinct form of cell death that can be triggered by a variety of physiological and pathological stimuli. Studies performed over the past 10 years have demonstrated that proteases play critical roles in initiation and execution of this process. The caspases, a family of cysteine-dependent aspartate-directed proteases, are prominent among the death proteases. Caspases are synthesized as relatively inactive zymogens that become activated by scaffold-mediated transactivation or by cleavage via upstream proteases in an intracellular cascade. Regulation of caspase activation and activity occurs at several different levels: ( a) Zymogen gene transcription is regulated; ( b) antiapoptotic members of the Bcl-2 family and other cellular polypeptides block proximity-induced activation of certain procaspases; and ( c) certain cellular inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (cIAPs) can bind to and inhibit active caspases. Once activated, caspases cleave a variety of intracellular polypeptides, including major structural elements of the cytoplasm and nucleus, components of the DNA repair machinery, and a number of protein kinases. Collectively, these scissions disrupt survival pathways and disassemble important architectural components of the cell, contributing to the stereotypic morphological and biochemical changes that characterize apoptotic cell death.

Mammalian caspases: structure ,a ctivation ,s ubstrates, and functions during apoptosis

Molecular self-assembly is the spontaneous association of molecules under equilibrium conditions into stable, structurally well-defined aggregates joined by noncovalent bonds. Molecular self-assembly is ubiquitous in biological systems and underlies the formation of a wide variety of complex biological structures. Understanding self-assembly and the associated noncovalent interactions that connect complementary interacting molecular surfaces in biological aggregates is a central concern in structural biochemistry. Self-assembly is also emerging as a new strategy in chemical synthesis, with the potential of generating nonbiological structures with dimensions of 1 to 10(2) nanometers (with molecular weights of 10(4) to 10(10) daltons). Structures in the upper part of this range of sizes are presently inaccessible through chemical synthesis, and the ability to prepare them would open a route to structures comparable in size (and perhaps complementary in function) to those that can be prepared by microlithography and other techniques of microfabrication.

Molecular self-assembly and nanochemistry: A chemical strategy for the synthesis of nanostructures

Methods for culturing mammalian cells ex vivo are increasingly needed to study cell and tissue physiology and to grow replacement tissue for regenerative medicine. Two-dimensional culture has been the paradigm for typical in vitro cell culture; however, it has been demonstrated that cells behave more natively when cultured in three-dimensional environments. Permissive, synthetic hydrogels and promoting, natural hydrogels have become popular as three-dimensional cell culture platforms; yet, both of these systems possess limitations. In this perspective, we discuss the use of both synthetic and natural hydrogels as scaffolds for three-dimensional cell culture as well as synthetic hydrogels that incorporate sophisticated biochemical and mechanical cues as mimics of the native extracellular matrix. Ultimately, advances in synthetic-biologic hydrogel hybrids are needed to provide robust platforms for investigating cell physiology and fabricating tissue outside of the organism.

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Hydrogels as Extracellular Matrix Mimics for 3D Cell Culture

Designer self-assembling peptide nanofiber scaffolds for 3D tissue cell cultures.

Chemistry has generally been associated with inorganic and organic syntheses, metal-organic composites, coordinate metal chemistry, catalyses, block copolymer, coating, thin film, industrial surfactants and small-molecule drug development. That is about to change. Chemistry will also expand to the discovery and fabrication of biological and molecular materials with diverse structures, functionalities and utilities. The advent of biotechnology, nanotechnology and nanobiotechnology has accelerated this trend. Nature has selected and evolved numerous molecular architectural motifs at nanometer scale over billions of years for particular functions. These molecular nanomotifs can now be designed for new materials and nanodevices from the bottom up. Chemistry will again harness Nature's enormous power to benefit other disciplines and society. This tutorial review focuses on two self-assembling peptide systems.

Molecular designer self-assembling peptides

Effect of strontium ions on the growth of ROS17/2.8 cells on porous calcium polyphosphate scaffolds.

Understanding of macromolecular materials at the molecular level is becoming increasingly important for a new generation of nanomaterials for nanobiotechnology and other disciplines, namely, the design, synthesis, and fabrication of nanodevices at the molecular scale from bottom up. Basic engineering principles for microfabrication can be learned through fully grasping the molecular self-assembly and programmed assembly phenomena. Self- and programmed-assembly phenomena are ubiquitous in nature. Two key elements in molecular macrobiological material productions are chemical complementarity and structural compatibility, both of which require weak and non-covalent interactions that bring building blocks together during self-assembly. Significant advances have been made during the 1990s at the interface of materials chemistry and biology. They include the design of helical ribbons, peptide nanofiber scaffolds for three-dimensional cell cultures and tissue engineering, peptide surfactants for solubilizing and stabilizing diverse types of membrane proteins and their complexes, and molecular ink peptides for arbitrary printing and coating surfaces as well as coiled-coil helical peptides for multi-length scale fractal structures. These designer self-assembling peptides have far reaching implications in a broad spectrum of applications in biology, medicine, nanobiotechnology, and nanobiomedical technology, some of which are beyond our current imaginations. [image: see text]

Designer Self‐Assembling Peptide Materials

Membrane proteins play vital roles in every aspect of cellular activities. To study diverse membrane proteins, it is crucial to select the right surfactants to stabilize them for analysis. Despite much effort, little progress has been made in elucidating their structure and function, largely because of a lack of suitable surfactants. Here we report the stabilization of a G protein-coupled receptor bovine rhodopsin in solution, using a new class of designer short and simple peptide surfactants. These surfactants consist of seven amino acids with a hydrophilic head, aspartic acid or lysine, and a hydrophobic tail with six consecutive alanines. These peptide surfactants not only enhance the stability of bovine rhodopsin in the presence of lipids and the common surfactants n-dodecyl-β-d-maltoside and octyl-d-glucoside, but they also significantly stabilize rhodopsin under thermal denaturation conditions, even after lipids are removed. These peptide surfactants are simple, versatile, effective, and affordable. They represent a designer molecular nanomaterial for use in studies of diverse elusive membrane proteins.

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/103/47/17707.full.pdf

Xiaojun Zhao

Papers

Designer self-assembling peptide nanofiber scaffolds for 3D tissue cell cultures.

Molecular designer self-assembling peptides

Effect of strontium ions on the growth of ROS17/2.8 cells on porous calcium polyphosphate scaffolds.

Designer Self‐Assembling Peptide Materials

Designer short peptide surfactants stabilize G protein-coupled receptor bovine rhodopsin