There is a growing interest in developing paramagnetic nanoparticles as responsive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents, which feature switchable T-1 image contrast of water protons upon biochemical cues for better discerning diseases. However, performing an MRI is pragmatically limited by its cost and availability. Hence, a facile, routine method for measuring the T-1 contrast is highly desired in early-stage development. This work presents a single-point inversion recovery (IR) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) method that can rapidly evaluate T-1 contrast change by employing a single, optimized IR pulse sequence that minimizes water signal for "off-state" nanoparticles and allows for sensitively measuring the signal change with "switch-on" T-1 contrast. Using peptide-induced liposomal gadopentetic acid (Gd3+-DTPA) release and redox-sensitive manganese oxide (MnO2) nanoparticles as a demonstration of generality, this method successfully evaluates the T-1 shortening of water protons caused by liposomal Gd3+-DTPA release and Mn2+ formation from MnO2 reduction. Furthermore, the NMR measurement is highly correlated to T-1-weighted MRI scans, suggesting its feasibility to predict the MRI results at the same field strength. This NMR method can be a low-cost, time-saving alternative for pre-MRI evaluation for a diversity of responsive T-1 contrast systems.

Visualizing liposome release profiles in small animals is important for evaluating the pharmacokinetic influence of vesicles. Encapsulating near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent dyes to visualize and report liposomal cargo release in vivo, which necessitates high encapsulation with deep self-quenching, is highly desirable in advanced (such as targeting or trigger-release) liposome development. However, passive loading of NIR dyes usually yields low encapsulation efficiencies (1-5%), causing significant wastage and cost-ineffectiveness while using expensive NIR fluorescent dyes. It would be highly beneficial if an active loading method, which typically has an encapsulation efficiency of nearly 100%, is developed. This research describes an active loading approach for two cyanine 5.5 (Cy5.5) derivatives. We discovered that using ammonium sucrose octasulfate (ASO) as a trapping agent allows for nearly 100% encapsulation for both Cy5.5 dyes, accompanied by the formation of nanoprecipitates inside the liposome, as evidenced by cryogenic electron microscopy. Fluorescence spectroscopy confirmed deep fluorescence self-quenching after active loading and a 60-100-fold fluorescence enhancement upon full content release via liposome rupture. Cellular uptake experiments showed that the fluorescence of Cy5.5-loaded liposomes recovered and plateaued after 9 hours of incubation with cells. In vivo fluorescence imaging (IVIS) demonstrated the same fluorescence activation in tumor-bearing mice intratumorally injected with the liposome. We believe that the developed active loading method will enable Cy5.5-loaded liposomes to be a deep tissue-compatible and cost-effective NIR fluorescence release-reporting platform. Visualizing liposome release profiles in small animals is important for evaluating the pharmacokinetic influence of vesicles.

Prolyl hydroxylase domain-containing protein 2 (PHD2) inhibition, which stabilizes hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α and thus triggers adaptation responses to hypoxia in cells, has become an important therapeutic target. Despite the proven high potency, small-molecule PHD2 inhibitors such as IOX2 may require a nanoformulation for favorable biodistribution to reduce off-target toxicity. A liposome formulation for improving the pharmacokinetics of an encapsulated drug while allowing a targeted delivery is a viable option. This study aimed to develop an efficient loading method that can encapsulate IOX2 and other PHD2 inhibitors with similar pharmacophore features in nanosized liposomes. Driven by a transmembrane calcium acetate gradient, a nearly 100% remote loading efficiency of IOX2 into liposomes was achieved with an optimized extraliposomal solution. The electron microscopy imaging revealed that IOX2 formed nanoprecipitates inside the liposome’s interior compartments after loading. For drug efficacy, liposomal IOX2 outperformed the free drug in inducing the HIF-1α levels in cell experiments, especially when using a targeting ligand. This method also enabled two clinically used inhibitors—vadadustat and roxadustat—to be loaded into liposomes with a high encapsulation efficiency, indicating its generality to load other heterocyclic glycinamide PHD2 inhibitors. We believe that the liposome formulation of PHD2 inhibitors, particularly in conjunction with active targeting, would have therapeutic potential for treating more specifically localized disease lesions.

Using a chemical approach to crosslink functionally versatile bioeffectors (such as peptides) to native proteins of interest (POI) directly inside a living cell is a useful toolbox for chemical biologists. However, this goal has not been reached due to unsatisfactory chemoselectivity, regioselectivity, and protein selectivity in protein labeling within living cells. Herein, we report the proof of concept of a cytocompatible and highly selective photolabeling strategy using a tryptophan-specific Ru-TAP complex as a photocrosslinker. Aside from the high selectivity, the photolabeling is blue light-driven by a photoinduced electron transfer (PeT) and allows the bioeffector to bear an additional UV-responsive unit. The two different photosensitivities are demonstrated by blue light-photocrosslinking a UV-sensitive peptide to POI. Our visible light photolabeling can generate photocaged proteins for subsequent activity manipulation by UV light. Cytoskeletal dynamics regulation is demonstrated in living cells via the unprecedented POI photomanipulation and proves that our methodology opens a new avenue to endogenous protein modification.