Design and Synthesis of Nanofibers of Self-assembled Glycoconjugates towards Mucosal Lining Restoration and Anti-Inflammatory Drug Delivery.

The medical practice for IBD is solely based on anti-inflammatory drugs, but the outcome is far from ideal. Our long-term research goal is to seek a better clinical outcome by combining the anti-inflammatory therapy with physical mucus layer restoration. As the first step towards that objective, we choose to develop self-assembled hydrogels of glycoconjugates that consist of anti-inflammatory drugs and glycopeptides. By covalently linking peptides (e.g., nap-phe-phe-lys), saccharides (e.g., glucosamine), and an anti-inflammatory drug (i.e., olsalazine), we have demonstrated that the obtained molecules self-assemble in water to form hydrogels composed of 3D networks of the nanofibers under acidic conditions. We also confirmed that the resulting glycoconjugates are cell compatible. However, the preliminary assessment of the efficacy of the hydrogels on the murine model is inconclusive, which warrants further investigation and molecular engineering.