We are excited to announce that our recent Account article, “Translating Supramolecular Design Principles to Camptothecin for Precision and Targeted Cancer Therapy,” has been selected as the front cover of the April 2026 issue of Accounts of Materials Research (Volume 7, Issue 4, pp 309–421).

About the Cover

The cover art illustrates the supramolecular self-assembly of camptothecin (CPT) into right-handed helical nanofibers that penetrate cancer cells within the tumor microenvironment. These chiral nanostructures facilitate efficient cellular uptake and intracellular drug delivery, leading to enhanced anticancer activity. The helical supramolecular fibers were manually designed and rendered using Autodesk 3ds Max, and the cancer cell structures were generated using Lovart AI with the Nano Banana Pro model.

Key Scientific Highlights from the Article

In this Account, we describe how supramolecular self-assembly offers a powerful route to overcome long-standing limitations of CPT, including poor solubility, low bioavailability, and instability of the active lactone form. Our group has, for the first time, achieved the self-assembly of CPT molecules into right-handed helical nanofibers with high chiroptical activity via a simple solvent-exchange process, establishing a new strategy for chiral carrier-free nanodrug design.

Key findings include:

• Near‑100% drug loading – The CPT nanofibers achieve approximately 100% drug loading without auxiliary carriers, resolving the conflict between potency and formulation complexity.

• Mitochondrial targeting and pyroptosis induction – The nanofibers activate the caspase-1/gasdermin D (GSDMD)-dependent pyroptosis pathway, amplified by ROS generation and mitochondrial dysfunction.

• Enhanced antitumor immunity – Pyroptotic cell death promotes immunogenic cell death (ICD), reshapes the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, and suppresses both primary tumor growth and distal metastasis.

• Excellent biocompatibility – No observable changes in body weight, organ histology, or hemolytic activity were observed, reflecting low systemic toxicity.

“When chirality amplifies from individual molecules to the mesoscale, CPT organizes into hierarchically ordered helical nanostructures whose morphology directly influences stability, biodistribution, and immune activation.” — from the Account

Article Details

• Title: Translating Supramolecular Design Principles to Camptothecin for Precision and Targeted Cancer Therapy

• Authors: Fengli Gao, Sravan Baddi, Xiaxin Qiu, and Chuanliang Feng

• Journal: Accounts of Materials Research, 2026, 7, 368–381

• DOI: 10.1021/accountsmr.5c00301

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 52533014, 52403161), the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (No. 25CL2900600), the National Key Research and Development Program (2024YFB3814600), and other funding sources listed in the paper.