Novel Ex Vivo Zymography Approach for Assessment of Protease Activity in Tissues with Activatable Antibodies

Protease detection in the biosensor era: A review

Proteases have been proposed as potential biomarkers for several pathological conditions including cancers, multiple sclerosis and cardiovascular diseases, due to their ability to break down the components of extracellular matrix and basement membrane. The development of protease biosensors opened up the possibility to investigate the proteolytic activity of dysregulated proteases with higher efficiency over the traditional detection assays due to their quick detection capability, high sensitivity and selectivity, simple instrumentation and cost-effective fabrication processes. In contrast to the recently published review papers that primarily focused on one specific class of proteases or one specific detection method, this review article presents different optical and electrochemical detection methods that can be used to design biosensors for all major protease families. The benefits and drawbacks of various transducer techniques integrated into protease biosensing platforms are analyzed and compared. The main focus is on activity-based biosensors that use peptides as biorecognition elements. The effects of nanomaterials on biosensor performance are also discussed. This review should help readers to select the biosensor that best fits their needs, and contribute to the further development of this research field. Protease biosensors may allow better comprehension of protease overexperession and potentially enable novel devices for point-of-care testing.

Engineering cytokines for cancer immunotherapy: a systematic review

Cytokines are pivotal mediators of cell communication in the tumor microenvironment. Multiple cytokines are involved in the host antitumor response, but the production and function of these cytokines are usually dysregulated during malignant tumor progression. Considering their clinical potential and the early successful use of cytokines in cancer immunotherapy, such as interferon alpha-2b (IFNα-2b; IntronA^®) and IL-2 (Proleukin^®), cytokine-based therapeutics have been extensively evaluated in many follow-up clinical trials. Following these initial breakthroughs, however, clinical translation of these natural messenger molecules has been greatly limited owing to their high-degree pleiotropic features and complex biological properties in many cell types. These characteristics, coupled with poor pharmacokinetics (a short half-life), have hampered the delivery of cytokines via systemic administration, particularly because of severe dose-limiting toxicities. New engineering approaches have been developed to widen the therapeutic window, prolong pharmacokinetic effects, enhance tumor targeting and reduce adverse effects, thereby improving therapeutic efficacy. In this review, we focus on the recent progress and competitive landscape in cytokine engineering strategies and preclinical/clinical therapeutics for cancer. In addition, aiming to promote engineered cytokine-based cancer immunotherapy, we present a profound discussion about the feasibility of recently developed methods in clinical medicine translation.

Microfluidic systems in clinical diagnosis

The use of microfluidic devices is highly attractive in the field of biomedical and clinical assessments, as their portability and fast response time have become crucial in providing opportune therapeutic treatments to patients. The applications of microfluidics in clinical diagnosis and point-of-care devices are continuously growing. The present review article discusses three main fields where miniaturized devices are successfully employed in clinical applications. The quantification of ions, sugars, and small metabolites is examined considering the analysis of bodily fluids samples and the quantification of this type of analytes employing real-time wearable devices. The discussion covers the level of maturity that the devices have reached as well as cost-effectiveness. The analysis of proteins with clinical relevance is presented and organized by the function of the proteins. The last section covers devices that can perform single-cell metabolomic and proteomic assessments. Each section discusses several strategically selected recent reports on microfluidic devices successfully employed for clinical assessments, to provide the reader with a wide overview of the plethora of novel systems and microdevices developed in the last 5 years. In each section, the novel aspects and main contributions of each reviewed report are highlighted. Finally, the conclusions and future outlook section present a summary and speculate on the future direction of the field of miniaturized devices for clinical applications.

New Advances in the Understanding of Proteases as Diagnostic and Pharmaceutical Targets in Homeostatic and Pathologic Conditions

Protease biology represents a hot topic in biomedical research because of their pivotal role in regulating cell and tissue homeostasis, regeneration and pathogenesis [...]