molecules-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

Innovations in Nanotechnology for Biomedical Analysis, Imaging and Therapy

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinal Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2023) | Viewed by 11369

Special Issue Editors

Institute of Bismuth and Rhenium & School of Materials and Chemistry, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China
Interests: composite materials for biosensing; imaging, synergistic therapy; photostimulation-responsive functional materials
Institute of Bismuth and Rhenium & School of Materials and Chemistry, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China
Interests: functional bismuth-based nanomaterials; molecular sensing and medical analysis; intelligent theranostics materials

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The goal of drafting the present Special Issue is to extensively discuss knowledge about the innovations in nanotechnology for biomedical analysis, imaging, and therapy. As we all know, the development of nanotechnology has injected infinite vitality and possibilities into the field of biomedicine. Especially in recent years, new nanotechnologies and nanomaterials have shown great application value in the fields of clinical diagnosis, bioimaging, and precise tumor therapy. A variety of new technologies have been reported. Innovations in the field of analysis include the electrochemical analysis, photoelectrochemical analysis, optical analysis (fluorescence analysis, Raman analysis, etc.), and other analysis methods. Innovations in the field of imaging include enhanced CT imaging, enhanced magnetic resonance imaging, optical imaging (fluorescence imaging, upconversion optical imaging, near-infrared imaging, Raman imaging, single-molecule imaging, etc.), photoacoustic and ultrasound imaging, and other imaging methods. Innovations in the field of therapy include enhanced radiotherapy, hyperthermia, reactive oxygen therapy under various stimulation conditions, synergistic therapy, etc.

This Special Issue hopes to collect new technologies and new materials in these fields, and to promote the development of nanomedicine by integrating new technologies and new materials, which will be very meaningful. The Special Issue accepts both research and review papers. We hope that this Special Issue will inspire scholars in different fields to advance nanomedicine.

Dr. Yuhao Li
Prof. Dr. Yuqing Miao
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • biomedical analysis
  • biomedical imaging
  • theranostics
  • multi-modal imaging
  • tumor nanotherapy
  • synergistic therapy

Published Papers (6 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

15 pages, 11492 KiB  
Article
Light-Elicited and Oxygen-Saved Iridium Nanocapsule for Oxidative Damage Intensified Oncotherapy
by Guobo Chen, Xiang Wang, Zongyan He, Xueyu Li, Zhijin Yang, Yule Zhang, Yuhao Li, Lulu Zheng, Yuqing Miao and Dawei Zhang
Molecules 2023, 28(11), 4397; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28114397 - 28 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1275
Abstract
Regulating redox homeostasis in tumor cells and exploiting oxidative stress to damage tumors is an efficacious strategy for cancer therapy. However, the strengths of organic nanomaterials within this strategy are often ignored. In this work, a light-triggered reactive oxygen species (ROS) damaging nanoamplifier [...] Read more.
Regulating redox homeostasis in tumor cells and exploiting oxidative stress to damage tumors is an efficacious strategy for cancer therapy. However, the strengths of organic nanomaterials within this strategy are often ignored. In this work, a light-triggered reactive oxygen species (ROS) damaging nanoamplifier (IrP-T) was developed for enhanced photodynamic therapy (PDT). The IrP-T was fabricated with an amphiphilic iridium complex and a MTH1 inhibitor (TH287). Under green light stimulation, IrP-T catalyzed the oxygen in cells to generate ROS for realizing oxidative damage; meanwhile, TH287 increased the accumulation of 8-oxo-dGTP, further strengthening oxidative stress and inducing cell death. IrP-T could maximize the use of a small amount of oxygen, thus further boosting the efficacy of PDT in hypoxic tumors. The construction of nanocapsules provided a valuable therapeutic strategy for oxidative damage and synergizing PDT. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

13 pages, 3353 KiB  
Article
Self-Assembled BODIPY Nanoparticles for Near-Infrared Fluorescence Bioimaging
by Jiale Wang, Zhao Jiang, Cheng Huang, Shimao Zhao, Senqiang Zhu, Rui Liu and Hongjun Zhu
Molecules 2023, 28(7), 2997; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28072997 - 28 Mar 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1877
Abstract
In vivo optical imaging is an important application value in disease diagnosis. However, near-infrared nanoprobes with excellent luminescent properties are still scarce. Herein, two boron–dipyrromethene (BODIPY) molecules (BDP-A and BDP-B) were designed and synthesized. The BODIPY emission was tuned to the near-infrared (NIR) [...] Read more.
In vivo optical imaging is an important application value in disease diagnosis. However, near-infrared nanoprobes with excellent luminescent properties are still scarce. Herein, two boron–dipyrromethene (BODIPY) molecules (BDP-A and BDP-B) were designed and synthesized. The BODIPY emission was tuned to the near-infrared (NIR) region by regulating the electron-donating ability of the substituents on its core structure. In addition, the introduction of polyethylene glycol (PEG) chains on BODIPY enabled the formation of self-assembled nanoparticles (NPs) to form optical nanoprobes. The self-assembled BODIPY NPs present several advantages, including NIR emission, large Stokes shifts, and high fluorescence quantum efficiency, which can increase water dispersibility and signal-to-noise ratio to decrease the interference by the biological background fluorescence. The in vitro studies revealed that these NPs can enter tumor cells and illuminate the cytoplasm through fluorescence imaging. Then, BDP-B NPs were selected for use in vivo imaging due to their unique NIR emission. BDP-B was enriched in the tumor and effectively illuminated it via an enhanced penetrability and retention effect (EPR) after being injected into the tail vein of mice. The organic nanoparticles were metabolized through the liver and kidney. Thus, the BODIPY-based nanomicelles with NIR fluorescence emission provide an effective research basis for the development of optical nanoprobes in vivo. Full article
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

12 pages, 2550 KiB  
Article
A Novel Strategy for Rapid Fluorescence Detection of FluB and SARS-CoV-2
by Zhijin Yang, Zhiwei Xue, Kejie Zheng, Yule Zhang, Guorong Sui, Haima Yang, Songlin Zhuang, Lulu Zheng and Dawei Zhang
Molecules 2023, 28(5), 2104; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28052104 - 23 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1255
Abstract
Undoubtedly, SARS-CoV-2 has caused an outbreak of pneumonia that evolved into a worldwide pandemic. The confusion of early symptoms of the SARS-CoV-2 infection with other respiratory virus infections made it very difficult to block its spread, leading to the expansion of the outbreak [...] Read more.
Undoubtedly, SARS-CoV-2 has caused an outbreak of pneumonia that evolved into a worldwide pandemic. The confusion of early symptoms of the SARS-CoV-2 infection with other respiratory virus infections made it very difficult to block its spread, leading to the expansion of the outbreak and an unreasonable demand for medical resource allocation. The traditional immunochromatographic test strip (ICTS) can detect one analyte with one sample. Herein, this study presents a novel strategy for the simultaneous rapid detection of FluB/SARS-CoV-2, including quantum dot fluorescent microspheres (QDFM) ICTS and a supporting device. The ICTS could be applied to realize simultaneous detection of FluB and SARS-CoV-2 with one test in a short time. A device supporting FluB/SARS-CoV-2 QDFM ICTS was designed and had the characteristics of being safe, portable, low-cost, relatively stable, and easy to use, ensuring the device could replace the immunofluorescence analyzer in cases where there is no need for quantification. This device does not need to be operated by professional and technical personnel and has commercial application potential. Full article
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Review

Jump to: Research

23 pages, 5070 KiB  
Review
Recent Development of Rhenium-Based Materials in the Application of Diagnosis and Tumor Therapy
by Qingwen Qi, Qian Wang, Yuhao Li, Dionisio Zaldivar Silva, Maria Eliana Lanio Ruiz, Ruizhuo Ouyang, Baolin Liu and Yuqing Miao
Molecules 2023, 28(6), 2733; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28062733 - 17 Mar 2023
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 2030
Abstract
Rhenium (Re) is widely used in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer due to its unique physical and chemical properties. Re has more valence electrons in its outer shell, allowing it to exist in a variety of oxidation states and to form different [...] Read more.
Rhenium (Re) is widely used in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer due to its unique physical and chemical properties. Re has more valence electrons in its outer shell, allowing it to exist in a variety of oxidation states and to form different geometric configurations with many different ligands. The luminescence properties, lipophilicity, and cytotoxicity of complexes can be adjusted by changing the ligand of Re. This article mainly reviews the development of radionuclide 188Re in radiotherapy and some innovative applications of Re as well as the different therapeutic approaches and imaging techniques used in cancer therapy. In addition, the current application and future challenges and opportunities of Re are also discussed. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

26 pages, 7414 KiB  
Review
Application of Nanomaterials to Enhance Polymerase Chain Reaction
by Zhu Yang, Bei Shen, Lihuan Yue, Yuqing Miao, Yihong Hu and Ruizhuo Ouyang
Molecules 2022, 27(24), 8854; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27248854 - 13 Dec 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2100
Abstract
Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is one of the most common technologies used to produce millions of copies of targeted nucleic acid in vitro and has become an indispensable technique in molecular biology. However, it suffers from low efficiency and specificity problems, false positive [...] Read more.
Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is one of the most common technologies used to produce millions of copies of targeted nucleic acid in vitro and has become an indispensable technique in molecular biology. However, it suffers from low efficiency and specificity problems, false positive results, and so on. Although many conditions can be optimized to increase PCR yield, such as the magnesium ion concentration, the DNA polymerases, the number of cycles, and so on, they are not all-purpose and the optimization can be case dependent. Nano-sized materials offer a possible solution to improve both the quality and productivity of PCR. In the last two decades, nanoparticles (NPs) have attracted significant attention and gradually penetrated the field of life sciences because of their unique chemical and physical properties, such as their large surface area and small size effect, which have greatly promoted developments in life science and technology. Additionally, PCR technology assisted by NPs (NanoPCR) such as gold NPs (Au NPs), quantum dots (QDs), and carbon nanotubes (CNTs), etc., have been developed to significantly improve the specificity, efficiency, and sensitivity of PCR and to accelerate the PCR reaction process. This review discusses the roles of different types of NPs used to enhance PCR and summarizes their possible mechanisms. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

20 pages, 2332 KiB  
Review
Advances in Molecular Pathology of Obstructive Sleep Apnea
by Menghan Zhang, Yun Lu, Lu Sheng, Xinxin Han, Liming Yu, Weihua Zhang, Shangfeng Liu and Yuehua Liu
Molecules 2022, 27(23), 8422; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27238422 - 01 Dec 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2132
Abstract
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common syndrome that features a complex etiology and set of mechanisms. Here we summarized the molecular pathogenesis of OSA, especially the prospective mechanism of upper? airway dilator fatigue and the current breakthroughs. Additionally, we also introduced the [...] Read more.
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common syndrome that features a complex etiology and set of mechanisms. Here we summarized the molecular pathogenesis of OSA, especially the prospective mechanism of upper? airway dilator fatigue and the current breakthroughs. Additionally, we also introduced the molecular mechanism of OSA in terms of related studies on the main signaling pathways and epigenetics alterations, such as microRNA, long non-coding RNA, and DNA methylation. We also reviewed small molecular compounds, which are potential targets for gene regulations in the future, that are involved in the regulation of OSA. This review will be beneficial to point the way for OSA research within the next decade. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop