Yuming Yang,†,§ Qiang Zhao,‡,§ Wei Feng,† and Fuyou Li*,† †Department of Chemistry and State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, P. R. China ‡Key Laboratory for Organic Electronics and Information Displays (KLOEID) and Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing 210046, P. R. China.

Luminescent chemodosimeters for bioimaging.

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Degradable Controlled-Release Polymers and Polymeric Nanoparticles: Mechanisms of Controlling Drug Release

The nonradiative conversion of light energy into heat (photothermal therapy, PTT) or sound energy (photoacoustic imaging, PAI) has been intensively investigated for the treatment and diagnosis of cancer, respectively. By taking advantage of nanocarriers, both imaging and therapeutic functions together with enhanced tumour accumulation have been thoroughly studied to improve the pre-clinical efficiency of PAI and PTT. In this review, we first summarize the development of inorganic and organic nano photothermal transduction agents (PTAs) and strategies for improving the PTT outcomes, including applying appropriate laser dosage, guiding the treatment via imaging techniques, developing PTAs with absorption in the second NIR window, increasing photothermal conversion efficiency (PCE), and also increasing the accumulation of PTAs in tumours. Second, we introduce the advantages of combining PTT with other therapies in cancer treatment. Third, the emerging applications of PAI in cancer-related research are exemplified. Finally, the perspectives and challenges of PTT and PAI for combating cancer, especially regarding their clinical translation, are discussed. We believe that PTT and PAI having noteworthy features would become promising next-generation non-invasive cancer theranostic techniques and improve our ability to combat cancers.

/pdf/photothermal-therapy-and-photoacoustic-imaging-via-5cxqag870v.pdf

Photothermal therapy and photoacoustic imaging via nanotheranostics in fighting cancer

Design strategies for water-soluble small molecular chromogenic and fluorogenic probes.

In this review we intend to provide a relatively comprehensive summary of the work of supramolecular hydrogelators after 2004 and to put emphasis particularly on the applications of supramolecular hydrogels/hydrogelators as molecular biomaterials. After a brief introduction of methods for generating supramolecular hydrogels, we discuss supramolecular hydrogelators on the basis of their categories, such as small organic molecules, coordination complexes, peptides, nucleobases, and saccharides. Following molecular design, we focus on various potential applications of supramolecular hydrogels as molecular biomaterials, classified by their applications in cell cultures, tissue engineering, cell behavior, imaging, and unique applications of hydrogelators. Particularly, we discuss the applications of supramolecular hydrogelators after they form supramolecular assemblies but prior to reaching the critical gelation concentration because this subject is less explored but may hold equally great promise for helping ...

Supramolecular Hydrogelators and Hydrogels: From Soft Matter to Molecular Biomaterials

The ultimate goal in cancer therapy and diagnosis is to achieve highly specific targeting to cancer cells. Coated with the source cancer cell membrane specifically derived from the homologous tumors, the nanoparticles are identified with the self-recognition internalization by the source cancer cell lines in vitro and the highly tumor-selective targeting “homing” to the homologous tumor in vivo even in the competition of another heterologous tumor. As the result, MNP@DOX@CCCM nanovehicle showed strong potency for tumor treatment in vivo and the MR imaging. This bioinspired strategy shows great potential for precise therapy/diagnosis of various tumors merely by adjusting the cell membrane source accordingly on the nanoparticle surface.

Preferential Cancer Cell Self-Recognition and Tumor Self-Targeting by Coating Nanoparticles with Homotypic Cancer Cell Membranes.

Non-apoptotic ferroptosis is of clinical importance because it offers a solution to the inevitable biocarriers of traditional apoptotic therapeutic means. Inspired by industrial electro-Fenton tech...

Ferrous-Supply-Regeneration Nanoengineering for Cancer-Cell-Specific Ferroptosis in Combination with Imaging-Guided Photodynamic Therapy

Construction of functional aliphatic polycarbonates for biomedical applications

This study reports a family of photothermal materials, metal ion/tannic acid assemblies (MITAs). MITAs from FeIII, VIII, and RuIII afford excellent photothermal efficiency (η ≈ 40%). Sharply differing from the currently existing photothermal agents, MITAs are highlighted by merits including green synthesis, facile incorporation of diagnostic metal ions, and particularly topology-independent adhesion. Owing to the adhesion nature of MITAs, various kinds of MITA-based nanoengineerings are readily available via the self-adhesion of MITAs onto diverse templates, enabling MITAs well suited as a photothermal platform for versatile combination with other therapy approaches and imaging techniques. As a proof of concept, polymeric/inorganic nanoparticle/nanovesicle-supported FeIII-tannic acid (FeIIITA) is fabricated. The photothermal effect is shown to be unaffected by the template origin and type and FeIIITA thickness on the templates. We validate the potency of nanovesicle-supported FeIIITA (PNV@FeIIITA) for tum...

Metal Ion/Tannic Acid Assembly as a Versatile Photothermal Platform in Engineering Multimodal Nanotheranostics for Advanced Applications.

Extreme hypoxia of tumors represents the most notable barrier against the advance of tumor treatments. Inspired by the biological nature of red blood cells (RBCs) as the primary oxygen supplier in mammals, an aggressive man-made RBC (AmmRBC) is created to combat the hypoxia-mediated resistance of tumors to photodynamic therapy (PDT). Specifically, the complex formed between hemoglobin and enzyme-mimicking polydopamine, and polydopamine-carried photosensitizer is encapsulated inside the biovesicle that is engineered from the recombined RBC membranes. The mean corpuscular hemoglobin of AmmRBCs reaches about tenfold as high as that of natural RBCs. Owing to the same origin of outer membranes, AmmRBCs share excellent biocompatibility with parent RBCs. The introduced polydopamine plays the role of the antioxidative enzymes existing inside RBCs to effectively prevent the oxygen-carrying hemoglobin from the oxidation damage during the circulation. This biomimetic engineering can accumulate in tumors, permit in situ efficient oxygen supply, and impose strong PDT efficacy toward the extremely hypoxic tumor with complete tumor elimination. The man-made pseudo-RBC shows potentials as a universal oxygen-self-supplied platform to sensitize hypoxia-limited tumor treatment means, including but not limited to PDT. Meanwhile, this study offers ideas to the production of artificial substitutes of packed RBCs for clinical blood transfusion.

Jun Feng

Papers

Preferential Cancer Cell Self-Recognition and Tumor Self-Targeting by Coating Nanoparticles with Homotypic Cancer Cell Membranes.

Ferrous-Supply-Regeneration Nanoengineering for Cancer-Cell-Specific Ferroptosis in Combination with Imaging-Guided Photodynamic Therapy

Construction of functional aliphatic polycarbonates for biomedical applications

Metal Ion/Tannic Acid Assembly as a Versatile Photothermal Platform in Engineering Multimodal Nanotheranostics for Advanced Applications.

Aggressive Man-Made Red Blood Cells for Hypoxia-Resistant Photodynamic Therapy.