CAS Engineering Laboratory for Nanozyme, Key Laboratory of Protein and Peptide Pharmaceutical, Institute of Biophysics , Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100101 , China.
College of Life Sciences , University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100049 , China.
Nano Lett. 2019 Dec 11;19(12):8887-8895. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b03774. Epub 2019 Nov 6.
Cerebral malaria is a lethal complication of malaria infection characterized by central nervous system dysfunction and is often not effectively treated by antimalarial combination therapies. It has been shown that the sequestration of the parasite-infected red blood cells that interact with cerebral vessel endothelial cells and the damage of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) play critical roles in the pathogenesis. In this study, we developed a ferritin nanozyme (Fenozyme) composed of recombinant human ferritin (HFn) protein shells that specifically target BBB endothelial cells (BBB ECs) and the inner FeO nanozyme core that exhibits reactive oxygen species-scavenging catalase-like activity. In the experimental cerebral malaria (ECM) mouse model, administration of the Fenozyme, but not HFn, markedly ameliorated the damage of BBB induced by the parasite and improved the survival rate of infected mice significantly. Further investigations found that Fenozyme, as well as HFn, was able to polarize the macrophages in the liver to the M1 phenotype and promote the elimination of malaria in the blood. Thus, the catalase-like activity of the Fenozyme is required for its therapeutic effect in the mouse model. Moreover, the Fenozyme significantly alleviated the brain inflammation and memory impairment in ECM mice that had been treated with artemether, indicating that combining Fenozyme with an antimalarial drug is a novel strategy for the treatment of cerebral malaria.
脑型疟疾是疟疾感染的一种致命并发症,其特征是中枢神经系统功能障碍,通常对抗疟联合疗法没有有效反应。已经表明,寄生虫感染的红细胞与脑血管内皮细胞相互作用的隔离以及血脑屏障(BBB)的损伤在发病机制中起关键作用。在这项研究中,我们开发了一种由重组人铁蛋白(HFn)蛋白壳组成的铁蛋白纳米酶(Fenozyme),该纳米酶特异性靶向血脑屏障内皮细胞(BBB ECs),并具有清除活性氧的过氧化物酶样核酶活性。在实验性脑型疟疾(ECM)小鼠模型中,给予 Fenozyme 而非 HFn 可显著改善寄生虫引起的 BBB 损伤,并显著提高感染小鼠的存活率。进一步的研究发现,Fenozyme 与 HFn 一样,能够将肝脏中的巨噬细胞极化到 M1 表型,并促进血液中疟疾的清除。因此,Fenozyme 的过氧化物酶样核酶活性是其在小鼠模型中治疗效果所必需的。此外,Fenozyme 显著减轻了已用青蒿琥酯治疗的 ECM 小鼠的脑炎症和记忆障碍,表明将 Fenozyme 与抗疟药物联合使用是治疗脑型疟疾的一种新策略。
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