A Covalent Brush‐on‐Brush Polymer Programs Ordered Intracellular Activation of a Mitochondria‐Disrupting Peptide

ABSTRACT Can the order in which a material encounters distinct biological environments be encoded directly into its covalent architecture? Intracellular peptide effectors acting at defined subcellular sites require activation logic that follows this order, yet many responsive carriers couple multiple functional changes to one trigger. Here, we report sequential unmasking peptide release architecture (SUPRA), a covalent brush‐on‐brush (BOB) bottlebrush polymer that distributes two orthogonal biochemical inputs across two structural layers: a mitochondria‐disrupting KLAK peptide inner brush densely grafted onto a glutathione‐cleavable polydisulfide backbone, and an acid‐labile PEG outer brush that masks the construct during circulation. Acidity first removes the outer mask to expose a membrane‐interactive peptide‐brush state, whereas cytosolic reduction deconstructs the backbone and relieves brush confinement. Architecture‐disrupted control and intracellular perturbation/FRET studies support a sequential pathway of acid‐triggered endolysosomal escape followed by reductive scaffold deconstruction and mitochondrial accumulation of KLAK‐bearing species. SUPRA extends circulation, accumulates in tumors, induces tumor‐cell death with immunogenic features, sensitizes tumors to PD‐1 blockade, and produces no detectable anti‐PEG antibody response under the tested dosing schedule. These results establish covalent BOB architectures as a design strategy for programming the sequence, not only the occurrence, of intracellular activation events.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Published
2026-09-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.4777081
Primary Topic
Supramolecular Self-Assembly in Materials
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
article

A Covalent Brush‐on‐Brush Polymer Programs Ordered Intracellular Activation of a Mitochondria‐Disrupting Peptide

Laixi Zhao, Fei Jia, Rui Xu, Lubin Ning et al.
Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Supramolecular Self-Assembly in Materials
article

A Covalent Brush‐on‐Brush Polymer Programs Ordered Intracellular Activation of a Mitochondria‐Disrupting Peptide

Laixi Zhao, Fei Jia, Rui Xu, Lubin Ning, Huiwei Zhang, Zilin Lu, Wenhua Xu
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Can the order in which a material encounters distinct biological environments be encoded directly into its covalent architecture? Intracellular peptide effectors acting at defined subcellular sites require activation logic that follows this order, yet many responsive carriers couple multiple functional changes to one trigger. Here, we report sequential unmasking peptide release architecture (SUPRA), a covalent brush‐on‐brush (BOB) bottlebrush polymer that distributes two orthogonal biochemical inputs across two structural layers: a mitochondria‐disrupting KLAK peptide inner brush densely grafted onto a glutathione‐cleavable polydisulfide backbone, and an acid‐labile PEG outer brush that masks the construct during circulation. Acidity first removes the outer mask to expose a membrane‐interactive peptide‐brush state, whereas cytosolic reduction deconstructs the backbone and relieves brush confinement. Architecture‐disrupted control and intracellular perturbation/FRET studies support a sequential pathway of acid‐triggered endolysosomal escape followed by reductive scaffold deconstruction and mitochondrial accumulation of KLAK‐bearing species. SUPRA extends circulation, accumulates in tumors, induces tumor‐cell death with immunogenic features, sensitizes tumors to PD‐1 blockade, and produces no detectable anti‐PEG antibody response under the tested dosing schedule. These results establish covalent BOB architectures as a design strategy for programming the sequence, not only the occurrence, of intracellular activation events.

Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Anhui Medical University (CN), Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences (CN), Hangzhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN)
Openalex Percentile: Top 21%
Supramolecular Self-Assembly in Materials
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.