On March 3rd, it was reported by the Southwest Hospital of Army Medical University that Professor Chen Lei's team from the Department of Gastroenterology, in collaboration with Professor Zhang Dinglin from Army Medical University, published a research paper titled "Targeted Delivery of Programmed Cell Death Ligand-1 Protein for Treating Acute and Chronic Enteritis" in the international academic journal Nature Communications. This study proposes for the first time that reactive oxygen-responsive nanomaterials can precisely deliver programmed cell death ligand-1 protein to the site of intestinal inflammation, effectively alleviating enteritis symptoms and providing a new strategy for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.
"Inflammatory bowel disease is a recurring chronic inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract, mainly including ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. Patients typically experience abdominal distension, diarrhea, and rectal bleeding, and in severe cases, complications such as intestinal stenosis and perforation may occur," explained Professor Chen Lei. "Due to its chronicity and difficulty to cure, the disease severely affects the quality of life of patients and imposes a heavy burden on them and their families."
Professor Chen stated that extensive research has been conducted on inflammatory bowel disease in the past. Studies have shown that drugs containing programmed cell death ligand-1 protein have good anti-inflammatory effects compared to conventional anti-inflammatory drugs. However, long-term use may lead to decreased immunity and even life-threatening risks. Therefore, developing safe and low-side-effect drugs for clinical treatment of inflammatory bowel disease has become a major focus.
"Numerous studies have shown that the inflammatory response is often accompanied by excessive production of reactive oxygen species. We wondered if we could use a material responsive to reactive oxygen species to precisely deliver the drug programmed cell death ligand-1 protein to the site of intestinal inflammation," said Professor Chen. They collaborated with Professor Zhang Dinglin, who has rich experience in drug delivery systems, to prepare a nanomaterial composed of α-cyclodextrin and 4-hydroxyphenylboronic acid pinacol ester with reactive oxygen response and clearance properties, and explored the therapeutic efficacy of such materials in acute and chronic enteritis mice.
"During the study, we combined programmed cell death ligand-1 protein with reactive oxygen-responsive nanomaterials to produce a new nanodrug," said Professor Chen. They found that when they injected this new nanodrug into mice, it could be accurately delivered to the site of enteritis compared to injecting programmed cell death ligand-1 protein alone. It could alleviate enteritis symptoms to the maximum extent by regulating the proportion of immune cells and reshaping intestinal flora. Importantly, they also found in experiments that delivering programmed cell death ligand-1 protein in this way could reduce its nonspecific distribution in other organs, thereby reducing the risk of bacterial lung infections and effectively reducing the side effects of such protein drugs, providing a new direction for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.
