Natural endogenous materials (NEMs), such as cell and cell derivatives, polysaccharide, protein and peptide, and nucleic acid-derived vectors, often exhibit biocompatibility, biodegradability and natural homing ability, which can minimize adverse reactions in vivo and have the potential to improve drug delivery efficacy. Currently, a variety of drug delivery systems (DDSs) based on NEMs have been constructed for macromolecules to address the challenges posed by their inherent large size, intricate structure, low permeability, and susceptibility to harsh environments. The aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive overview of various delivery strategies that predominantly utilize NEMs as carriers for macromolecular delivery. By thoroughly discussing the pros and cons of NEM-based DDSs, we hope to provide valuable insights into future innovations in pharmaceutical science, with a focus on improving therapeutic outcomes through advanced drug formulations.
Animals ; Humans ; Biological Products/chemistry* ; Drug Carriers/chemistry* ; Drug Delivery Systems ; Macromolecular Substances/chemistry*

The phenomenon of phase separation of intracellular biological macromolecules is an emerging research field that has received great attention in recent years. As an aggregation and compartment mechanism of cell biochemical reactions, it widely exists in nature and participates in important physiological processes such as gene transcription and regulation, as well as influences organism's response to external stimuli. Disequilibrium of phase separation may lead to the occurrence of some major diseases. Researchers in cross-cutting fields are trying to examine dementia and other related diseases from a new perspective of phase separation, exploring its molecular mechanism and the potential possibility of intervention and treatment. This review intends to introduce the latest research progress in this field, summarize the major research directions, biochemical basis, its relationship with disease occurrence, and giving a future perspective of key problems to focus on.
Animals ; Chemistry Techniques, Analytical ; trends ; Cytoplasm ; chemistry ; metabolism ; Humans ; Macromolecular Substances ; isolation & purification ; Research ; trends

Single particle analysis, which can be regarded as an average of signals from thousands or even millions of particle projections, is an efficient method to study the three-dimensional structures of biological macromolecules. An intrinsic assumption in single particle analysis is that all the analyzed particles must have identical composition and conformation. Thus specimen heterogeneity in either composition or conformation has raised great challenges for high-resolution analysis. For particles with multiple conformations, inaccurate alignments and orientation parameters will yield an averaged map with diminished resolution and smeared density. Besides extensive classification approaches, here based on the assumption that the macromolecular complex is made up of multiple rigid modules whose relative orientations and positions are in slight fluctuation around equilibriums, we propose a new method called as local optimization refinement to address this conformational heterogeneity for an improved resolution. The key idea is to optimize the orientation and shift parameters of each rigid module and then reconstruct their three-dimensional structures individually. Using simulated data of 80S/70S ribosomes with relative fluctuations between the large (60S/50S) and the small (40S/30S) subunits, we tested this algorithm and found that the resolutions of both subunits are significantly improved. Our method provides a proof-of-principle solution for high-resolution single particle analysis of macromolecular complexes with dynamic conformations.
Algorithms ; Computer Simulation ; Cryoelectron Microscopy ; methods ; Crystallography, X-Ray ; Humans ; Macromolecular Substances ; chemistry ; Models, Molecular ; Protein Conformation ; Ribosomes ; chemistry

The combination of nanotechnology and molecular imprinting technique, including their application research in biomedical domain, provides a new solution to the problem of the substitutes for antibodies, enzymes, and other native biological structures as well as cell bracket materials. Nanocavity biomaterials with recognition specificity imprinted by using proteins as templates have numerous applications in biotechnology, medicine and so on. This review presents the aspects of molecular imprinting nanostructure involved in the biomacromolecules imprinting, and it explores the precent developments and achievements of nanomaterials for molecular imprinting technology.
Macromolecular Substances ; chemistry ; Molecular Imprinting ; trends ; Nanostructures ; Nanotechnology ; trends ; Proteins ; chemistry

Animals ; Gene Targeting ; instrumentation ; Genetic Vectors ; chemistry ; genetics ; metabolism ; Humans ; Macromolecular Substances ; chemistry ; Viruses ; chemistry ; genetics ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the effect of ossicular reconstruction with partial ossicular replacement prosthesis (PORP) in patients with tympanosclerosis.

METHODSThe data of 31 cases of tympanosclerosis treated between 1992 and 2009 were reviewed. Of the 31 patients, 17 (17 ears) underwent ossicular reconstruction with porous macromolecular polyethylene PORP, and 14 (14 ears) with bioceramic PORP. All the patients were followed up for 3-24 months.

RESULTSSignificant improvement was found in postoperative speech frequency (500, 1000, 2000 Hz) pure tone average (PTA) and air-bone gap (ABG) (P < 0.05) after the treatments without statistically significant differences between the two groups (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONPorous macromolecular polyethylene and bioceramic are valuable ossicular prosthesis for tympanosclerosis.

Adult ; Biocompatible Materials ; Ceramics ; chemistry ; Female ; Humans ; Macromolecular Substances ; chemistry ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Ossicular Prosthesis ; Ossicular Replacement ; methods ; Otosclerosis ; surgery ; Polyethylene ; chemistry ; Porosity ; Prosthesis Implantation ; methods ; Treatment Outcome

To find out which biomaterial had the best biocompatibility, we compared the acute phase reaction of common biomaterials preparing for vascular grafts with the material of polyurethane modified by silk fibroin (SF-PU(1:1)). After transplanted the materials of dacron, polyterafluoroethylene (e-PTFE), polyurethane (PU), SF-PU(1:1) in rat muscle for one week, we studied the influence of different biomaterials on the histocompatibility by using rat acute toxicity test, test of local reaction in muscle, tissue section staining, WBC and PLT count. As a result, dacron had the worst histocompatibility. The other biomaterials had slight local inflammatory reaction. The WBC and PLT was nearly the same with the blank except dacron. e-PTFE, pure PU and SF-PU(1:1) had the better histocompatibility than traditional dacron. Especially SF-PU(1:1) had the best histocompatibility. Because of the better physical properties and histocompatibility of SF-PU( 1:1), the prospect of preparing small-diameter vascular grafts with SF-PU was cheerful.
Acute-Phase Reaction ; Animals ; Biocompatible Materials ; Blood Vessel Prosthesis ; Blood Vessel Prosthesis Implantation ; instrumentation ; Female ; Fibroins ; chemistry ; Implants, Experimental ; Macromolecular Substances ; chemistry ; Male ; Materials Testing ; methods ; Muscle, Skeletal ; physiology ; Polyurethanes ; chemistry ; Prosthesis Design ; Random Allocation ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

Broad-spectrum antimicrobial peptides provide a new way to address the urgent growing problem of bacterial resistance. However, the limited natural resources and the high cost of extraction and purification of natural antimicrobial peptides can not meet the requirements of clinical application. In order to solve this problem, researchers have utilized two basic common structural features (amphiphilic and cationic) for designing and preparing synthetic antimicrobial macromolecular polymers. During the last decade, several kinds of amphiphilic polymers, including arylamide oligomers, phenylene ethynylenes, polymethacrylates, polynorbornenes as well as nylon-3 polymers have been synthesized. In this paper, the structures, antibacterial activities and selectivities of these polymers are reviewed, and the effects of molecular size, polarity and ratio of hydrophobic groups, positive charge density on antibacterial activity and selectivity are also summarized.
Anti-Infective Agents ; chemical synthesis ; chemistry ; Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides ; chemical synthesis ; chemistry ; Drug Design ; Inhibitory Concentration 50 ; Macromolecular Substances ; chemical synthesis ; chemistry ; Polymers ; chemical synthesis ; chemistry

Advances in cryo-electron microscopy (Cryo-EM) and single-particle reconstruction have led to increasingly high resolutions of macromolecular three-dimensional reconstruction. However, for keeping up the continuing improvements in resolution, it is necessary to increase the number of particles included in performing reconstructions. Manual selection of particles, even assisted by computer, is a bottleneck of single-particle reconstruction. Cryo-EM image has low signal-to-noise ratio and low contrast, which leads to difficulty in particle picking. Various approaches have been developed to address the problem of automatic particle. This paper describes the application of template-based method, edge based method, feature-based method, neural network, DoG-based and simulated annealing approach in particle picking. The characteristics of various approaches are discussed, and the future development is presented.
Animals ; Automatic Data Processing ; Cryoelectron Microscopy ; instrumentation ; methods ; trends ; Humans ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; methods ; Imaging, Three-Dimensional ; Macromolecular Substances ; ultrastructure ; Molecular Conformation ; Particle Size ; Ribosomes ; chemistry ; ultrastructure

Polypore fungi is a cluster of important pharmacological fungi with significant antitumor activity. In recent years, the antineoplastic constituents from polypore fungi have been comprehensively studied. Through investigating the domestic and overseas studied paper, the antitumor active constituents derived from polypore fungi including high molecular weight compounds such as polysaccharides, glycopeptides, glycoproteins, lectins, and lipid soluble low molecular weight compounds such as terpenoids, steroids, phenolics, benzopyranones, were reviewed. In addition, the significance in the exploitation of new drug for antitumor by the application of polypore fungi was discussed at the end of this paper.
Animals ; Antineoplastic Agents ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Fungi ; chemistry ; Humans ; Macromolecular Substances ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Molecular Weight ; Organic Chemicals ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Polyporus ; chemistry ; Solubility