manganese

Overview

Manganese is a chemical element with broad biological, environmental, and technological relevance. In biology and medicine, it is an essential trace metal that participates in enzyme function, redox chemistry, and metal-dependent signaling, but it can also be toxic when present in excess or in inappropriate chemical forms. Its divalent ion, Mn2+, is especially important in recent biomedical research because it can influence oxidative stress, immune signaling, and biomaterial performance.

In the studies summarized here, manganese was investigated primarily as a functional metal ion or material component rather than as a classical drug target. Recent work has explored Mn2+ in immune amplification strategies, nanoadjuvants, chemodynamic therapy, peptide metal binding, and environmental recovery systems. These applications reflect manganese’s ability to coordinate with biomaterials, modulate redox processes, and interact with pathways such as cGAS-STING and reactive oxygen species–linked antitumor immunity.

Focus of Latest Publications

Recent publications have focused on manganese as a functional component in diverse analytical, therapeutic, and materials-based systems. In biobanking research, serum manganese was one of ten metals quantified by ICP-MS in long-term versus short-term cryopreserved human samples, where its concentration was significantly altered after prolonged storage alongside changes in the serum proteome and inter-element correlation networks. These findings suggest that manganese measurements in archived biospecimens may be sensitive to storage duration and should be interpreted in the context of biobank quality control.

Several studies examined manganese in coordination or nanoparticle platforms for biomedical imaging and immunomodulation. A manganese-porphyrin nanoparticle system modified with boronic acid groups showed reduced macrophage uptake, prolonged circulation, and improved lymph node MRI contrast for detecting lymph node metastasis. In another study, a manganese-tannic acid shell was assembled onto IR780-loaded, IFN-β-expressing Escherichia coli to create a photothermally triggered bacterial-metal immune amplifier; near-infrared irradiation induced synchronized release of Mn2+ and bacterial IFN-β, which lowered the cGAS activation threshold, hyper-activated the cGAS-STING pathway, and promoted dendritic cell maturation and CD8+ T-cell recruitment in cold tumors.

Manganese has also been used as an immune adjuvant and in antitumor nanocatalytic systems. A sericin-chitosan nanoparticle loaded with Mn2+ served as a scalable nanoadjuvant for an inactivated pseudorabies virus vaccine, prolonging antigen release, enhancing antigen uptake, promoting dendritic cell maturation, and increasing CD4+/CD8+ T-cell responses and memory T cells; in challenge studies, the Mn2+-adjuvanted vaccine achieved complete protection in mice. Separately, violet phosphorus nanosheets mineralized with manganese generated a nanocatalyst that sustained active Mn2+ in the tumor microenvironment, amplified Mn2+-mediated chemodynamic therapy, increased reactive oxygen species, and enhanced STING pathway activation under NIR-II phototherapy, resulting in strong antitumor efficacy in mice.

Beyond these therapeutic applications, manganese was also studied in a chemical recovery context and in peptide-metal binding assays. Ozone oxidative precipitation was investigated for cobalt and manganese recovery from aqueous solutions, with manganese precipitation optimized at higher temperature and flow rate; kinetic analyses indicated diffusion-controlled behavior and formation of manganese oxide phases that could also promote cobalt capture. In a separate biochemical study, glycosylated and non-glycosylated LL-37 peptide fragments were tested for binding to Mn2+ and copper(2+), showing non-permanent complexes with modest affinity and demonstrating that glycosylation subtly altered peptide-metal coordination without major toxicity.

Key Publications

• NEWJun Impact of long-term cryopreservation on serum proteome and metallome: Implications for Biobank quality control. (PloS one, 2026, PMID 42348576): "Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to quantify ten metals: vanadium (V), chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), selenium (Se), rubidium (Rb), strontium (Sr), and cesium (Cs)."
• Jun Chemical Kinetic and Mechanistic Investigation of Cobalt and Manganese Recovery from Aqueous Solutions by Ozone Oxidative Precipitation. (Environmental science & technology, 2026, PMID 42233940): "Cobalt (Co) and manganese (Mn) are designated as critical elements by the U.S. Department of the Interior, yet the mechanisms governing their recovery from aqueous systems remain poorly understood."
• May Photothermally Triggered Bacterial-Manganese Immune Amplifier Enables Spatiotemporal STING Hyper-Activation against Cold Tumors. (Nano letters, 2026, PMID 42029112): "synchronized release of Mn2+."
• May Sericin-chitosan nanoassembly-based scalable and biocompatible manganese nanoadjuvant for high-performance inactivated pseudorabies virus vaccine. (International journal of biological macromolecules, 2026, PMID 41941907): "This work developed a manganese (Mn2+)-loaded sericin-chitosan nanoparticle via ethylenediaminetetraacetic dianhydride (EDTAD)-assistant Mn2+ coordination (named as SS-CS-EDTAD-Mn), which was then utilized as a high-performance nanoadjuvant for an inactivated PRV vaccine."
• May Influence of N- and O-glycosylation on structural properties and biological activity of a C-terminal LL-37 fragment. (Carbohydrate research, 2026, PMID 41780202): "The metal-binding affinity of these glycopeptides (N163 and T168) and the unmodified reference peptide (hCAP) toward Cu2+ and Mn2+ ions were evaluated by steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy."
• Feb Boronic acid group modified Mn-porphyrin nanoparticles evade macrophage uptake for lymph node metastasis diagnosis via MRI. (Biomaterials, 2026, PMID 41666758): "We engineered a series of Pluronic F127-based NPs as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents, incorporating manganese (Mn) porphyrin molecules bearing varied functional groups (-CH3, -OH, -COOH, -NH2, and -B(OH)2)."
• May Self-amplifying violet phosphorus-manganese nanocatalysts disrupt redox homeostasis and potentiate antitumor immunity via NIR-II phototherapy. (Biomaterials, 2026, PMID 41330332): "Within MVPs, VPNSs not only function as electron donors to sustain the concentration of active Mn2+ in the TME and amplify the Mn2+-mediated self-enhanced chemodynamic therapy (CDT), but also serve as NIR-II photocatalysts."