De novo chemoattractants form supramolecular hydrogels for immunomodulating neutrophils in vivo.
Most immunomodulatory materials (e.g., vaccine adjuvants such as alum) modulate adaptive immunity, and yet little effort has focused on developing materials to regulate innate immunity, which get mentioned only when inflammation affects the biocompatibility of biomaterials. Traditionally considered as short-lived effector cells from innate immunity primarily for the clearance of invading microorganisms without specificity, neutrophils exhibit a key role in launching and shaping the immune response. Here we show that the incorporation of unnatural amino acids into a well-known chemoattractant-N-formyl-l-methionyl-l-leucyl-l-phenylalanine (fMLF)-offers a facile approach to create a de novo, multifunctional chemoattractant that self-assembles to form supramolecular nanofibrils and hydrogels. This de novo chemoattractant not only exhibits preserved cross-species chemoattractant activity to human and murine neutrophils, but also effectively resists proteolysis. Thus, its hydrogel, in vivo, releases the chemoattractant and attracts neutrophils to the desired location in a sustainable manner. As a novel and general approach to generate a new class of biomaterials for modulating innate immunity, this work offers a prolonged acute inflammation model for developing various new applications.
Department of Chemistry, Brandeis University , 415 South Street MS015, Waltham, Massachusetts 02454, United States.
Fan
F
Zhao
Jingyu
J
Li
Ning
N
Zhou
Jiro
J
Sakai
Yuan
Y
Gao
Junfeng
J
Shi
Bronia
B
Goldman
Hayley M
HM
Browdy
Hongbo R
HR
Luo
Bing
B
Xu
D000818:Animals; D040761:Biomimetic Materials / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D002630:Chemotactic Factors / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000276:immunology; D003429:Cross Reactions; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D020100:Hydrogels / Q000737:chemistry*; D007155:Immunologic Factors / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology; D056747:Immunomodulation; D007249:Inflammation / Q000276:immunology; D008264:Macrophages / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D009240:N-Formylmethionine Leucyl-Phenylalanine / Q000737:chemistry*; D009504:Neutrophils / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species / Q000378:metabolism; D012212:Rheology; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
D002630:Chemotactic Factors; D020100:Hydrogels; D007155:Immunologic Factors; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species; D009240:N-Formylmethionine Leucyl-Phenylalanine