Light chemistry could lead to better medicines
By combining hydrolysis and light chemistry, researchers at KTH, KI and Uppsala University have developed a new method for controlling the functionality of medical biomaterials. The results may ultimately lead to better medicines and reduced dependence on animal experiments.
“We have found a key to controlling the switching on and off of proteins by combining photochemistry and hydrolysis,” says KTH researcher Tove Kivijärvi.
When designing materials that aim to improve medicine, you need to be able to control the functions of the material in a very precise way. If this is achieved, cell environments similar to the human body can be created in the lab, which is important for understanding biological mechanisms, disease processes and how the body repairs itself. Biological materials can also be used to study how drugs work and to streamline drug testing and preclinical studies.
“Most of today's biomaterials are based on technologies that do not allow for this level of control of the material's functions and this is one of the reasons why there are such huge challenges in tissue regeneration and advanced therapies. The method we have developed takes a step closer to that realisation,” says Kivijärvi.
Possbilities that did not exist before
In a study published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, Kivijärvi and her co-authors describe how they developed a photochemical group that was linked to a polymer. A hydrogel was then created from this material. By using UV or NIR light together with a series of hydrolysis-prone groups, the researchers were able to control where and how quickly the proteins were released into the hydrogel in a very precise way.
“To enable this kind of control within a material, we combined one of the most fundamental reactions, hydrolysis, with reactions that can be controlled entirely by light. The combination opens up possibilities that did not exist before; to be able to regulate where and when such a fundamental reaction occurs. This is an important function when it comes to, for example, releasing proteins to affect cells in predetermined ways,” says Kivijärvi.
Enabling new preclinical studies
Depending on which protein the researchers included in the material, they could control the fate of the cells. The material could direct the cells to either adhere better to the surface, which is important for cells to multiply, or direct the cells to differentiate into more mature cell types.
“The biggest application would be towards precision medicine. Being able to take cells from a patient and grow them on this material where we know the location of our proteins, so we can look at how the cells respond to the action of proteins. Then we can study how different drugs respond to the patient's cell type,” says Kivijärvi.
The researchers behind the study believe that being able to represent cell environments in the lab would provide the tools needed to streamline, improve and enable completely new preclinical studies.
“If we can perform much more precise and reliable preclinical studies, it will give us keys to understanding complex underlying diseases and drug processes that we would not otherwise be able to do. Another important aspect to this is that we will be able to both reduce and eliminate some animal experiments,” says Kivijärvi.
Text: Jon Lindhe ( jlindhe@kth.se )