Simple Complexity: Incorporating Bioinspired Delivery Machinery within Self-Assembled Peptide Biogels

Rui Li; Qing-Ling Zhou; Min-Rui Tai; Kathryn Ashton-Mourney; Mathew I Harty; Aaqil Rifai; Clare L Parish; David R Nisbet; Sai-Yi Zhong; Richard J Williams

doi:10.3390/gels9030199

Simple Complexity: Incorporating Bioinspired Delivery Machinery within Self-Assembled Peptide Biogels

Gels. 2023 Mar 6;9(3):199. doi: 10.3390/gels9030199.

Authors

Rui Li^{1

2}, Qing-Ling Zhou¹, Min-Rui Tai¹, Kathryn Ashton-Mourney³, Mathew I Harty³, Aaqil Rifai³, Clare L Parish⁴, David R Nisbet^{5

6

7}, Sai-Yi Zhong^{1

2}, Richard J Williams^{3

5}

Affiliations

¹ College of Food Science and Technology, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang 524008, China.
² Collaborative Innovation Center of Seafood Deep Processing, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian 116034, China.
³ IMPACT, School of Medicine, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC 3217, Australia.
⁴ The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3052, Australia.
⁵ The Graeme Clark Institute, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia.
⁶ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia.
⁷ Melbourne Medical School, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Science, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia.

Abstract

Bioinspired self-assembly is a bottom-up strategy enabling biologically sophisticated nanostructured biogels that can mimic natural tissue. Self-assembling peptides (SAPs), carefully designed, form signal-rich supramolecular nanostructures that intertwine to form a hydrogel material that can be used for a range of cell and tissue engineering scaffolds. Using the tools of nature, they are a versatile framework for the supply and presentation of important biological factors. Recent developments have shown promise for many applications such as therapeutic gene, drug and cell delivery and yet are stable enough for large-scale tissue engineering. This is due to their excellent programmability-features can be incorporated for innate biocompatibility, biodegradability, synthetic feasibility, biological functionality and responsiveness to external stimuli. SAPs can be used independently or combined with other (macro)molecules to recapitulate surprisingly complex biological functions in a simple framework. It is easy to accomplish localized delivery, since they can be injected and can deliver targeted and sustained effects. In this review, we discuss the categories of SAPs, applications for gene and drug delivery, and their inherent design challenges. We highlight selected applications from the literature and make suggestions to advance the field with SAPs as a simple, yet smart delivery platform for emerging BioMedTech applications.

Keywords: drug delivery; gene delivery; self-assembling peptides; smart delivery platform.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the General project of Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (grant number: 2021A1515010868), funded by Department of Science and Technology of Guangdong Province; Guangdong Province ordinary universities characteristic innovation project (grant number: 2020KTSCX051), funded by Guangdong Provincial Department of Education; and The Innovative Team Program of High Education of Guangdong Province (grant number: 2021KCXTD021), funded by Guangdong Provincial Department of Education. A.R. would like to acknowledge the support of the Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. R.J.W. would like to acknowledge the support of the CASS foundation.