State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China.
Small. 2017 Oct;13(39). doi: 10.1002/smll.201701601. Epub 2017 Aug 21.
Reactive sulfur species (RSS) are a family of crucial biosignals for regulating cell processes. Among these, hydrogen polysulfide (H S , n ≥ 2) is a hallmark of tumor suppressor activation and regarded as the actual regulator to mediate sulfur-related biology. However, high effective recognition of intracellular H S is insurmountable due to its extremely low concentration and the disturbance of RSS analogues. Here an H S -responsive macromolecule that can distinguish H S from intracellular RSS through polymer degradation in ultrasensitive and highly selective manner is reported. This kind of polymers can further self-assemble into vesicular nanostructure. Upon cell uptake, they can be function as "all-in-one" H S -nanoplatforms, in order to fulfill multiple ambitious tasks including monitoring the H S biosynthetic pathways, unraveling the puzzles of H S -mediated cellular events, and conducting H S pathological milieu-specific drug delivery.
活性硫物种 (RSS) 是一类调节细胞过程的关键生物信号分子。在这些 RSS 中，多硫化氢 (H2S, n ≥ 2) 是肿瘤抑制因子激活的标志，被认为是介导硫相关生物学的实际调节剂。然而，由于其浓度极低，以及 RSS 类似物的干扰，对细胞内 H2S 的有效识别是不可逾越的。本研究报道了一种 H2S 响应性的高分子，它可以通过超灵敏和高选择性的聚合物降解来区分 H2S 和细胞内的 RSS。这种聚合物可以进一步自组装成囊泡状纳米结构。在被细胞摄取后，它们可以作为“一体式”H2S-纳米平台，以完成多项雄心勃勃的任务，包括监测 H2S 的生物合成途径、揭示 H2S 介导的细胞事件的谜题，以及进行针对 H2S 病理环境的药物传递。
