Reprogrammed siTNFα/neutrophil cytopharmaceuticals targeting inflamed joints for rheumatoid arthritis therapy

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease characterized by severe synovial inflammation and cartilage damage. Despite great progress in RA therapy, there still lacks the drugs to completely cure RA patients. Herein, we propose a reprogrammed neutrophil cytopharmaceuticals loading with TNFα-targeting-siRNA (siTNFα) as an alternative anti-inflammatory approach for RA treatment. The loaded siTNFα act as not only the gene therapeutics to inhibit TNFα production by macrophages in inflamed synovium, but also the editors to reprogram neutrophils to anti-inflammatory phenotypes. Leveraging the active tendency of neutrophils to inflammation, the reprogrammed siTNFα/neutrophil cytopharmaceuticals (siTNFα/TP/NEs) can rapidly migrate to the inflamed synovium, transfer the loaded siTNFα to macrophages followed by the significant reduction of TNFα expression, and circumvent the pro-inflammatory activity of neutrophils, thus leading to the alleviated synovial inflammation and improved cartilage protection. Our work provides a promising cytopharmaceutical for RA treatment, and puts forward a living neutrophil-based gene delivery platform.

Construction and application of gene delivery systems for primary dendritic cells / 中国药科大学学报

@#Nowadays, there is still no mature gene delivery system for safe and effective transfection on primary dendritic cells (DC). Herein, we constructed a liposome-based gene delivery system for primary DCs and optimized the preparation method to improve the transfection efficiency of siRNA on primary DCs. In this study, different methods, including co-incubation method, ethanol injection method, and protamine compound method, were used to prepare liposome/siRNA complexes based on different cationic lipids. Moreover, particle size, zeta potential, siRNA loading capacity, safety, stability, uptake efficiency and gene silencing efficiency of various liposome/siRNA complexes were detected to screen the optimal cationic lipid as well as its preparation method. We demonstrated that the OA2/siRNA delivery system prepared by the co-incubation method exhibited the best safety, uptake efficiency and gene silencing effect, compared to other siRNA delivery systems including the commercial Lipo2000. In summary, we provide a safe and effective gene delivery vector for primary DC cells through simple preparation method, which could also offer a gene delivery platform for other immune cells.

Design, synthesis and application of AIE fluorescent probe for lipid raft / 中国药科大学学报

@#Lipid rafts composed of saturated phospholipids,sphingomyelin,and cholesterol are usually defined as liquid ordered microdomains located in the cell membrane. Lipid rafts are involved in many physiological and pathological processes of cells. Based on the difference in composition and distribution between lipid raft and non-raft domains,a lipid raft probe with aggregation-induced emission (AIE),cholesterol-triethylene glycol-tetraphenylethylene (TCHS-TPE),was designed and synthesized for convenient and specific imaging of lipid raft domains on cell membranes in this study. In this paper,TCHS-TPE was successfully synthesized,and the photophysical properties of TCHS-TPE were measured to evaluate its AIE characteristics. And finally the specific imaging of TCHS-TPE on the lipid raft region of B16F10 melanoma cell membrane was studied using confocal laser scanning microscopy. Compared with the existing lipid raft probe cholera toxin B (CTxB),the TCHS-TPE lipid raft probe has the advantages of simple operation and high specificity. The successful synthesis of the fluorescent probe will provide a useful tool for studying the physiological and pathological processes related to lipid raft domains,and offer a theoretical basis for the design of imaging probes for other lipid raft domains.

Synthesis and JAK2 inhibitory activities of 4-phenyl-pyrrolo[2, 3-d] pyrimidine derivatives / 中国药科大学学报

A series of 4-phenyl-pyrrolo[2,3-d] pyrimidine derivatives were synthesized through modifying the structure of the lead compound ruxolitinib by molecular hybridization strategy.It was synthesized from pyrimidine-4,6-diol by Vilsmeier-Haack reaction,SNAr reaction,cyclized,dehydration,Suzuki coupling and finally acylated to give 12 new compounds(12a-121).All structures of the synthesized compounds were confirmed by 1H NMR,13C NMR,and HRMS analysis.The biological activities were evaluated in vitro.Their JAK2 inhibitory activities were studied using JAK2 enzymatic and TF1-GMCSF cellular assays.The results indicated that compounds 12b,12e and 12h showed moderate activity.The anti-tumor activities were studied against JAK2-independent A549 cell line by the MTT assay.Results showed that the tide compounds exhibited potent antiproliferative effect on A549,especially compound 12c(IC50 =0.12 μmol/L),suggesting that this series compounds might be promising anti-tumor agents for futher investigation.

Preparation and characterization of tumor targeting doxorubicin liposomesmodified via click chemistry / 中国药科大学学报

@#In this study, octreotide targeting doxorubicin liposome(Dox@Oct-L)was prepared by modifying cholesterol with azide group to prepare azide-modified doxorubicin liposome(Dox@N3-L), followed by click reaction on the vehicle surface with alkyne-modified octreotide. HPLC chromatographic determination showed that octreotide was successfully attached to drug loaded liposome. No significant effect of click modification on the drug loaded within liposome was detected, and the entrapment efficiency of Dox@Oct-L was 99. 8%. Dox@Oct-L showed improved in vitro anti-tumor activity against HepG2 cell when compared with Dox@N3-L, demonstrating that Dox@Oct-L possessed targeting ability against HepG2 cell. Therefore, the click chemistry in modification of drug-loading carrier surface is gentle and efficient, providing the possibility to functional modification in drug-loading carrier surface convieniently.