Chirality is a prevalent characteristic in nature, where biological systems exhibit a significant preference for specific enantiomers of biomolecules. However, there is a limited exploration into utilizing nanomaterials' chirality to modulate their interactions with intracellular substances. In this study, self-assembled copper-cysteine chiral nanoparticles and explore the influence of their charity on cancer chemodynamic therapy (CDT) are fabricated. Experimental and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation results demonstrate that the copper-l-cysteine chiral nanoparticles (Cu-l-Cys NPs) exhibit a stronger affinity toward l-glutathione (l-GSH) that is overproduced in cancer cells, compared to the copper-d-cysteine enantiomer (Cu-d-Cys NPs). The interaction between Cu-l-Cys NPs and l-GSH triggers a redox reaction that depletes l-GSH and converts Cu2+ into Cu+ . Subsequently, Cu+ catalyzes a Fenton-like reaction, decomposing H2 O2 into highly cytotoxic hydroxyl radicals (•OH) for cancer CDT. In vivo, results confirm that Cu-l-Cys NPs with good biocompatibility elicit a pronounced cancer cell death and effectively inhibit tumor growth. This work proposes a new perspective on chirality-enhanced cancer therapy.
Keywords: amino acids; cancer therapy; chemodynamic therapy; chirality; glutathione.
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