The deprotection reaction resulted in the exposure of hydroxyl groups on sugars. Sugars on the cell surface participate in various biological events, including cell-cell adhesion, cell recognition, and cell differentiation. Recently, we moved forward and made two exceeding achievements on DISA. By using the protected glyco-block containing pre-assembled glyco-vesicles in water as the starting material, we reported the deprotection-induced morphology transition and immunoactivation in aqueous media, which motivates the immune-application of this morphology transition process. The vesicle is consisted of PEG shell and sugar wall (Ac-protected). The deprotection of pendent sugars in water induced the change in hydrophilic/ hydrophobic ratio of glycopolymers in situ, resulting in the transition of vesicles to micelles, to lamella sheets and to compound micelles. In addition, lipase was found to be an efficient enzymatic trigger in the sugar deprotection, When lipase and a model antigen, ovalbumin (OVA), were encapsu-lated inside the glyco-vesicles, the deprotection of sugars by lipase induced the transition of vesicles to micelles and the lipase and OVA were released accordingly. Interestingly, when glyco-vesicles were internalized by dentritic cells (DCs), the lipase from lyso-somes efficiently induced the deprotection and shape transition. After lysosomal deprotection, the sugars (galactose) on glyco-vehicle were re-activated and worked perfectly with the released antigen, showing the dual functions, delivery vehicle and immune adjuvant, which enhanced DC maturation and activation and improved presentation efficiency of T cells remarkably. As designed in the glyco-vehicles, the PEG corona has good biocompatibility while sugars were pre-protected to avoid unnecessary immune activa-tion before arriving in lysosome. Finally considering acylation is a common type of modification to biomolecules, one may expect a bright outlook in the immunotherapy of the novel design of responsive polymersomes.

Wenjing Qi's paper "Deprotection-induced morphology transition and immuno-activation of glyco-vesicles: a strategy of smart delivery polymersomes." has been published in J. Am. Chem. Soc.!

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