Since the discovery of mechanically exfoliated graphene in 2004, research on ultrathin two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials has grown exponentially in the fields of condensed matter physics, material science, chemistry, and nanotechnology. Highlighting their compelling physical, chemical, electronic, and optical properties, as well as their various potential applications, in this Review, we summarize the state-of-art progress on the ultrathin 2D nanomaterials with a particular emphasis on their recent advances. First, we introduce the unique advances on ultrathin 2D nanomaterials, followed by the description of their composition and crystal structures. The assortments of their synthetic methods are then summarized, including insights on their advantages and limitations, alongside some recommendations on suitable characterization techniques. We also discuss in detail the utilization of these ultrathin 2D nanomaterials for wide ranges of potential applications among the electronics/optoelectronics, electrocat...

Recent Advances in Ultrathin Two-Dimensional Nanomaterials

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

Because of the high catalytic activities and substrate specificity, natural enzymes have been widely used in industrial, medical, and biological fields, etc. Although promising, they often suffer from intrinsic shortcomings such as high cost, low operational stability, and difficulties of recycling. To overcome these shortcomings, researchers have been devoted to the exploration of artificial enzyme mimics for a long time. Since the discovery of ferromagnetic nanoparticles with intrinsic horseradish peroxidase-like activity in 2007, a large amount of studies on nanozymes have been constantly emerging in the next decade. Nanozymes are one kind of nanomaterials with enzymatic catalytic properties. Compared with natural enzymes, nanozymes have the advantages such as low cost, high stability and durability, which have been widely used in industrial, medical, and biological fields. A thorough understanding of the possible catalytic mechanisms will contribute to the development of novel and high-efficient nanozymes, and the rational regulations of the activities of nanozymes are of great significance. In this review, we systematically introduce the classification, catalytic mechanism, activity regulation as well as recent research progress of nanozymes in the field of biosensing, environmental protection, and disease treatments, etc. in the past years. We also propose the current challenges of nanozymes as well as their future research focus. We anticipate this review may be of significance for the field to understand the properties of nanozymes and the development of novel nanomaterials with enzyme mimicking activities.

Nanozymes: Classification, Catalytic Mechanisms, Activity Regulation, and Applications

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) play an essential role in regulating various physiological functions of living organisms. The intrinsic biochemical properties of ROS, which underlie the mechanisms ne...

Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS)-Based Nanomedicine.

The complexity, diversity, and heterogeneity of tumors seriously undermine the therapeutic potential of treatment. Therefore, the current trend in clinical research has gradually shifted from a focus on monotherapy to combination therapy for enhanced treatment efficacy. More importantly, the cooperative enhancement interactions between several types of monotherapy contribute to the naissance of multimodal synergistic therapy, which results in remarkable superadditive (namely “1 + 1 > 2”) effects, stronger than any single therapy or their theoretical combination. In this review, state-of-the-art studies concerning recent advances in nanotechnology-mediated multimodal synergistic therapy will be systematically discussed, with an emphasis on the construction of multifunctional nanomaterials for realizing bimodal and trimodal synergistic therapy as well as the intensive exploration of the underlying synergistic mechanisms for explaining the significant improvements in synergistic therapeutic outcome. Furtherm...

Nanotechnology for Multimodal Synergistic Cancer Therapy

Theranostics for in vivo cancer diagnosis and treatment generally requires well-designed nanoscale platforms with multiple integrated functionalities. In this study, we uncover that functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) could be self-assembled on the surface of two-dimensional MoS2 nanosheets via sulfur chemistry, forming MoS2-IO nanocomposites, which are then modified with two types of polyethylene glycol (PEG) to acquire enhanced stability in physiological environments. Interestingly, 64Cu, a commonly used positron-emitting radioisotope, could be firmly adsorbed on the surface of MoS2 without the need of chelating molecules, to enable in vivo positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. On the other hand, the strong near-infrared (NIR) and superparamagnetism of MoS2-IO-PEG could also be utilized for photoacoustic tomography (PAT) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, respectively. Under the guidance by such triple-modal imaging, which uncovers efficient tumor retention of MoS2-IO-(d)PEG upon int...

/pdf/iron-oxide-decorated-mos2-nanosheets-with-double-pegylation-4cke3s2g16.pdf

Iron Oxide Decorated MoS2 Nanosheets with Double PEGylation for Chelator-Free Radiolabeling and Multimodal Imaging Guided Photothermal Therapy

A novel type of bio-nanoreactor with catalase loaded inside TaOx hollow nanoshells is fabricated via a mild one-step method. Such bio-nanoreactors could efficiently improve the tumor oxygenation by supplying oxygen via decomposition of endogenic H2 O2 in a tumor microenvironment, and thus synergistically enhance the efficacy of cancer radiotherapy by both depositing radiation energy within the tumor and overcoming hypoxia-induced radiotherapy resistance.

Catalase-Loaded TaOx Nanoshells as Bio-Nanoreactors Combining High-Z Element and Enzyme Delivery for Enhancing Radiotherapy.

Recently, two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) have received tremendous attention in many fields including biomedicine. Herein, we develop a general method to dope different types of metal ions into WS2 nanoflakes, a typical class of TMDCs, and choose Gd(3+)-doped WS2 (WS2:Gd(3+)) with polyethylene glycol (PEG) modification as a multifunctional agent for imaging-guided combination cancer treatment. While WS2 with strong near-infrared (NIR) absorbance and X-ray attenuation ability enables contrasts in photoacoustic (PA) imaging and computed tomography (CT), Gd(3+) doping offers the nanostructure a paramagnetic property for magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. As revealed by trimodal PA/CT/MR imaging, WS2:Gd(3+)-PEG nanoflakes showed efficient tumor homing after intravenous injection. In vivo cancer treatment study further uncovered that WS2:Gd(3+)-PEG could not only convert NIR light into heat for photothermal therapy (PTT) but also enhance the ionizing irradiation-induced tumor damage to boost radiation therapy (RT). Owing to the improved tumor oxygenation after the mild PTT, the combination of PTT and RT induced by WS2:Gd(3+)-PEG resulted in a remarkable synergistic effect to destroy cancer. Our work highlights the promise of utilizing inherent physical properties of TMDC-based nanostructures, whose functions could be further enriched by elementary doping, for applications in multimodal bioimaging and synergistic cancer therapy.

Bottom-Up Synthesis of Metal-Ion-Doped WS2 Nanoflakes for Cancer Theranostics

Recently, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) have attracted significant attention in nanomedicine owing to their intriguing properties. In this study, TiS2 nanosheets, a new TMDC nanomaterial, are synthesized by a bottom-up solution-phase method and then modified with polyethylene glycol (PEG), obtaining TiS2-PEG with high stability in physiological solutions and no appreciable in vitro toxicity. Due to their high absorbance in the near-infrared (NIR) region, TiS2-PEG nanosheets could offer a strong contrast in photoacoustic imaging, which uncovers the high tumor uptake and retention of these nanosheets after systemic administration into tumor-bearing mice. We further apply TiS2-PEG nanosheets for in vivo photothermal therapy, which are able to completely eradicate the tumors in mice upon intravenous injection of TiS2-PEG followed by NIR laser irradiation. Our work indicates that TiS2 nanosheets with appropriate surface coating (e.g. PEGylation) would be a promising new class of photothermal agents for imaging-guided cancer therapy.

Two-dimensional TiS2 nanosheets for in vivo photoacoustic imaging and photothermal cancer therapy

Recently, the development of multifunctional theranostic nanoplatforms to realize tumor-specific imaging and enhanced cancer therapy via responding or modulating the tumor microenvironment (TME) has attracted tremendous interests in the field of nanomedicine. Herein, tungsten disulfide (WS2 ) nanoflakes with their surface adsorbed with iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) via self-assembly are coated with silica and then subsequently with manganese dioxide (MnO2 ), on to which polyethylene glycol (PEG) is attached. The obtained WS2 -IO/S@MO-PEG appears to be highly sensitive to pH, enabling tumor pH-responsive magnetic resonance imaging with IONPs as the pH-inert T2 contrast probe and MnO2 as the pH-sensitive T1 contrast probe. Meanwhile, synergistic combination tumor therapy is realized with such WS2 -IO/S@MO-PEG, by utilizing the strong near-infrared light and X-ray absorbance of WS2 for photothermal therapy (PTT) and enhanced cancer radiotherapy (RT), respectively, as well as the ability of MnO2 to decompose tumor endogenous H2 O2 and relieve tumor hypoxia to further overcome hypoxia-associated radiotherapy resistance. The combination of PTT and RT with WS2 -IO/S@MO-PEG results in a remarkable synergistic effect to destruct tumors. This work highlights the promise of developing multifunction nanocomposites for TME-specific imaging and TME modulation, aiming at precision cancer synergistic treatment.

Sida Shen

Papers

Iron Oxide Decorated MoS2 Nanosheets with Double PEGylation for Chelator-Free Radiolabeling and Multimodal Imaging Guided Photothermal Therapy

Catalase-Loaded TaOx Nanoshells as Bio-Nanoreactors Combining High-Z Element and Enzyme Delivery for Enhancing Radiotherapy.

Bottom-Up Synthesis of Metal-Ion-Doped WS2 Nanoflakes for Cancer Theranostics

Two-dimensional TiS2 nanosheets for in vivo photoacoustic imaging and photothermal cancer therapy

Manganese Dioxide Coated WS2@Fe3O4/sSiO2 Nanocomposites for pH-Responsive MR Imaging and Oxygen-Elevated Synergetic Therapy