bims-mricoa 2022-01-02 papers

Issue of 2022–01–02
five papers selected by
Merve Yavuz, Bilkent University

Vaccines (Basel). 2021 Dec 18. pii: 1497. [Epub ahead of print]9(12):

Bacterial-Based Cancer Therapy (BBCT): Recent Advances, Current Challenges, and Future Prospects for Cancer Immunotherapy.

Kajal H Gupta, Christina Nowicki, Eileena F Giurini, Amanda L Marzo, Andrew Zloza.

Currently approximately 10 million people die each year due to cancer, and cancer is the cause of every sixth death worldwide. Tremendous efforts and progress have been made towards finding a cure for cancer. However, numerous challenges have been faced due to adverse effects of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and alternative cancer therapies, including toxicity to non-cancerous cells, the inability of drugs to reach deep tumor tissue, and the persistent problem of increasing drug resistance in tumor cells. These challenges have increased the demand for the development of alternative approaches with greater selectivity and effectiveness against tumor cells. Cancer immunotherapy has made significant advancements towards eliminating cancer. Our understanding of cancer-directed immune responses and the mechanisms through which immune cells invade tumors have extensively helped us in the development of new therapies. Among immunotherapies, the application of bacteria and bacterial-based products has promising potential to be used as treatments that combat cancer. Bacterial targeting of tumors has been developed as a unique therapeutic option that meets the ongoing challenges of cancer treatment. In comparison with other cancer therapeutics, bacterial-based therapies have capabilities for suppressing cancer. Bacteria are known to accumulate and proliferate in the tumor microenvironment and initiate antitumor immune responses. We are currently well-informed regarding various methods by which bacteria can be manipulated by simple genetic engineering or synthetic bioengineering to induce the production of anti-cancer drugs. Further, bacterial-based cancer therapy (BBCT) can be either used as a monotherapy or in combination with other anticancer therapies for better clinical outcomes. Here, we review recent advances, current challenges, and prospects of bacteria and bacterial products in the development of BBCTs.

Keywords: bacterial therapy; bacteriotherapy; cancer immunotherapy; therapeutic bacteria; tumor targeting bacteria

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9121497

Pharmaceutics. 2021 Nov 27. pii: 2026. [Epub ahead of print]13(12):

Silica Coating of Ferromagnetic Iron Oxide Magnetic Nanoparticles Significantly Enhances Their Hyperthermia Performances for Efficiently Inducing Cancer Cells Death In Vitro.

Cristian Iacoviță, Ionel Fizeșan, Stefan Nitica, Adrian Florea, Lucian Barbu-Tudoran, Roxana Dudric, Anca Pop, Nicoleta Vedeanu, Ovidiu Crisan, Romulus Tetean, Felicia Loghin, Constantin Mihai Lucaciu.

Increasing the biocompatibility, cellular uptake, and magnetic heating performance of ferromagnetic iron-oxide magnetic nanoparticles (F-MNPs) is clearly required to efficiently induce apoptosis of cancer cells by magnetic hyperthermia (MH). Thus, F-MNPs were coated with silica layers of different thicknesses via a reverse microemulsion method, and their morphological, structural, and magnetic properties were evaluated by multiple techniques. The presence of a SiO2 layer significantly increased the colloidal stability of F-MNPs, which also enhanced their heating performance in water with almost 1000 W/gFe as compared to bare F-MNPs. The silica-coated F-MNPs exhibited biocompatibility of up to 250 μg/cm2 as assessed by Alamar Blues and Neutral Red assays on two cancer cell lines and one normal cell line. The cancer cells were found to internalize a higher quantity of silica-coated F-MNPs, in large endosomes, dispersed in the cytoplasm or inside lysosomes, and hence were more sensitive to in vitro MH treatment compared to the normal ones. Cellular death of more than 50% of the malignant cells was reached starting at a dose of 31.25 μg/cm2 and an amplitude of alternating magnetic field of 30 kA/m at 355 kHz.

Keywords: A35; A549; BJ; alamar blue; cancer cells; iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles; magnetic hyperthermia; neutral red; silica coating

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics13122026

Chem Rev. 2021 Dec 30.

Magnetic Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Anisotropy, and Applications.

Zhenhui Ma, Jeotikanta Mohapatra, Kecheng Wei, J Ping Liu, Shouheng Sun.

Anisotropy is an important and widely present characteristic of materials that provides desired direction-dependent properties. In particular, the introduction of anisotropy into magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) has become an effective method to obtain new characteristics and functions that are critical for many applications. In this review, we first discuss anisotropy-dependent ferromagnetic properties, ranging from intrinsic magnetocrystalline anisotropy to extrinsic shape and surface anisotropy, and their effects on the magnetic properties. We further summarize the syntheses of monodisperse MNPs with the desired control over the NP dimensions, shapes, compositions, and structures. These controlled syntheses of MNPs allow their magnetism to be finely tuned for many applications. We discuss the potential applications of these MNPs in biomedicine, magnetic recording, magnetotransport, permanent magnets, and catalysis.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemrev.1c00860

Pharmaceutics. 2021 Nov 25. pii: 2000. [Epub ahead of print]13(12):

Protein-Based Nanoparticles for the Imaging and Treatment of Solid Tumors: The Case of Ferritin Nanocages, a Narrative Review.

Francesco Mainini, Arianna Bonizzi, Marta Sevieri, Leopoldo Sitia, Marta Truffi, Fabio Corsi, Serena Mazzucchelli.

Protein nanocages have been studied extensively, due to their unique architecture, exceptional biocompatibility and highly customization capabilities. In particular, ferritin nanocages (FNs) have been employed for the delivery of a vast array of molecules, ranging from chemotherapeutics to imaging agents, among others. One of the main favorable characteristics of FNs is their intrinsic targeting efficiency toward the Transferrin Receptor 1, which is overexpressed in many tumors. Furthermore, genetic manipulation can be employed to introduce novel variants that are able to improve the loading capacity, targeting capabilities and bio-availability of this versatile drug delivery system. In this review, we discuss the main characteristics of FN and the most recent applications of this promising nanotechnology in the field of oncology with a particular emphasis on the imaging and treatment of solid tumors.

Keywords: cancer; drug delivery; ferritin; imaging; tumor targeting

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics13122000

ACS Biomater Sci Eng. 2021 Dec 31.

Establishing a Cell-Free Transcription-Translation Platform for Cutibacterium acnes to Prototype Engineered Metabolic and Synthetic Biology.

María-José Fábrega, Nastassia Knödlseder, Guillermo Nevot, Marta Sanvicente, Lorena Toloza, Javier Santos-Moreno, Marc Güell.

In the past few years, new bacterial-cell-free transcription-translation systems have emerged as potent and quick platforms for protein production as well as for prototyping of DNA regulatory elements, genetic circuits, and metabolic pathways. The Gram-positive commensal Cutibacterium acnes is one of the most abundant bacteria present in the human skin microbiome. However, it has recently been reported that some C. acnes phylotypes can be associated with common inflammatory skin conditions, such as acne vulgaris, whereas others seem to play a protective role, acting as possible "skin probiotics". This fact has made C. acnes become a bacterial model of interest for the cosmetic industry. In the present study we report for the first time the development and optimization of a C. acnes-based cell-free system (CFS) that is able to produce 85 μg/mL firefly luciferase. We highlight the importance of harvesting the bacterial pellet in mid log phase and maintaining CFS reactions at 30 °C and physiological pH to obtain the optimal yield. Additionally, a C. acnes promoter library was engineered to compare coupled in vitro TX-TL activities, and a temperature biosensor was tested, demonstrating the wide range of applications of this toolkit in the synthetic biology field.

Keywords: Cutibacterium acnes; FMN-GFP; RNA-seq; biosensor; cell-free system; firefly luciferase

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsbiomaterials.1c00894