Look hard enough and microscopic crystals are common in animals, including humans. Naturally occurring crystals in-vivo play important roles in health as well as disease. Recombinant protein crystals are also being used, or are in development, as drug delivery systems providing therapies to treat diseases including diabetes, cancer, osteoarthritis and macular degeneration.
When proteins are used therapeutically, each protein and its target pair present unique challenges for delivery. Placing proteins in the right place (targeting) for a sufficient period (sustained delivery) to achieve efficacy requires solutions appropriate to each drug.
Recombinant proteins provide a powerful research tool and have also transformed the treatment of many diseases. From the smallest peptide to larger proteins, such as antibodies, how proteins are delivered and reach their target is critical to their function and just as important as their activity on the target.
Extracellular proteins and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) within the extracellular matrix (ECM) undergo limited enzymatic cleavage to release fragments which exert biological activities that are distinct from their full-length progenitors. These fragments regulate a range of processes including angiogenesis, inflammation, wound healing and fibrosis and have been implicated in many diseases including neurodegeneration and cancer.
Just like people, cells can take a while to adapt to a new environment. For cells cultured in-vivo, its possible to wean cells on to new conditions. However, when cells are implanted, moving from in-vitro to in-vivo conditions, weaning isn’t an option. The resultant culture shock can kill most of the transplanted cells.
Diseases that primarily affect the brain, often resulting in dementia, are some of the most prevalent, devastating, and yet poorly treated of all diseases. Despite advances in our knowledge of basic neurosciences, the failure rate for new drugs targeting important central nervous system (CNS) diseases still exceeds most other areas of drug discovery. A significant barrier to drug development for these diseases is presented by the blood-brain barrier (BBB).
A recent paper exploring the use of optimized virus like particles (VLPs) to deliver base editing proteins has shown impressive levels of efficacy and, importantly, low levels of off-target activity in mouse models of therapy for brain, eye and liver disease.
Producing lab-grown meat – made with animal cells grown in bioreactors – is a promising avenue for sustainable meat production. However, scaling up this process to produce tons of meat at a reasonable cost is going to be difficult. One of the main hurdles in the scaling process is producing the large quantities of growth factors required for culturing muscle and other cells.
Neutrophils and macrophages are key players in the early immune response to infection. In a recent paper, published in Science Advances, a team of researchers at Vanderbilt University have further explored neutrophil NETosis, a process whereby neutrophils initially secrete, and ultimately autolyse, to generate a sticky mesh which immobilizes the pathogen. The researchers have shown that this mesh actively enables and empowers the subsequent activity of macrophages.
