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  • Perspective
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Regulation of biological processes by intrinsically chiral engineered materials

Nature Reviews Materials volume 8, pages 403–413 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Chirality has a key role in the synthesis of biomolecules and the development of life. Although the effects of many chiral molecules or materials on biological processes have been studied for over 150 years, research aimed at understanding the relationship between the intrinsic chirality of engineered materials and bioresponses is still at the beginning. In this Perspective article, we present three classes of intrinsically chiral engineered materials: carbon dots, metal-based materials and patterned geometries. We elaborate on these chiral materials in terms of design, structural and functional differences between the enantiomers and effects of intrinsic chirality on biological processes. Finally, we address the safety concerns, challenges, opportunities and directions for future development of intrinsically chiral materials.

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Fig. 1: Various biological processes that can be regulated by chirality.
Fig. 2: Chiral carbon dots regulating various biological processes.
Fig. 3: Chiral metal-based materials regulating various biological processes.
Fig. 4: Chiral geometries for biomolecule sensing and cellular behaviour regulation.

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Acknowledgements

Dedicated to the 70th birthday of M. Prato. The authors greatly acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82100974), Shandong Province Key Research and Development Program (No. 2021ZDSYS18), Shandong Province Natural Science Foundation (No. ZR2021QH241), Young Elite Scientist Support Program by CSA (No. 2021PYRC001) and Qilu Young Scholars Program of Shandong University. This work was partly supported by the Interdisciplinary Thematic Institute SysChem via the IdEx Unistra (ANR-10-IDEX-0002) within the programme ‘Investissement d’Avenir’. A.B. acknowledges the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the International Center for Frontier Research in Chemistry.

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  1. Department of Tissue Engineering and Regeneration, School and Hospital of Stomatology, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University and Shandong Key Laboratory of Oral Tissue Regeneration and Shandong Engineering Laboratory for Dental Materials and Oral Tissue Regeneration and Shandong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, Jinan, Shandong, China

    Baojin Ma

  2. CNRS, Immunology, Immunopathology and Therapeutic Chemistry, UPR3572, University of Strasbourg, ISIS, Strasbourg, France

    Alberto Bianco

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B.M. and A.B. envisioned and prepared the Perspective article, carried out the literature survey, analysed the data, prepared the figures and wrote the paper.

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Ma, B., Bianco, A. Regulation of biological processes by intrinsically chiral engineered materials. Nat Rev Mater 8, 403–413 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-023-00561-1

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