Recent Progress in Bioimaging and Targeted Therapy

A special issue of Targets (ISSN 2813-3137).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2024 | Viewed by 3104

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
Interests: immunosensors; electrochemical sensors; chemically modified electrodes; biosensors; electroanalysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
Interests: responsive DNA probes; rare-earth nanoparticles; biosensing; in-vivo bioimaging and therapy

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Guest Editor
MOE Key Laboratory for Analytical Science of Food Safety and Biology, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Analysis and Detection Technology for Food Safety, State Key Laboratory of Photocatalysis on Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350116, China
Interests: nanobiotechnology; bioanalytical chemistry; biological imaging; functional nucleic acid; nanoscintillator

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Guest Editor
School of Biomedical Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen 518107, China
Interests: biosensing; bioimaging and molecular diagnosis; nucleic acid analysis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Bioimaging is used to visualize biomolecules and their biological activity in a specific period of time. It does not influence the life processes during visualization, but can help understanding biological activities in molecular levels and connecting the observation of subcellular structures with multicellular tissues and organs. Targeted bioimaging contributes to current therapy by providing evidence for disease diagnosis; locating and guiding surgical operation; indicating the time and position to perform treatments; and evaluating therapeutic effects. The topics of this Special Issue may include the following themes:

Developing novel in vivo strategies for targeted MRI, PET, CT, fluorescence, Raman imaging etc.

Developing specific biosensing techniques for disease biomarkers, including small molecules, nucleic acids, macromolecules, circulating cancer cells, cancer cells, tumor organs etc.

Designing and fabricating targeted imaging probes including but not limited to organic molecules; inorganic nanomaterials such as rare earth materials, silica nanoparticles, and quantum dots; conducting polymers; and DNA self-assembly materials.

Developing strategies to enhance imaging S/N ratio, resolution, specificity, efficiency, etc.

Developing cancer therapeutic plans including chemotherapy, photodynamic therapy, photothermal therapy, gene therapy, immune therapy etc.

Exploring new therapeutic targets and signaling pathways for therapeutic plans.

Developing novel targeted therapeutic strategies to enhance therapeutic efficiency and diminish side effects

Prof. Dr. Huangxian Ju
Prof. Dr. Ying Liu
Prof. Dr. Huanghao Yang
Prof. Dr. Zong Dai
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. Targets is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly 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 1000 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

  • bioimaging
  • targeted bioimaging
  • activatable imaging probes
  • chemotherapy
  • photodynamic therapy
  • photothermal therapy
  • gene therapy
  • immunotherapy

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 3217 KiB  
Article
Photo-Cleavable Polycations-Wrapped Upconversion Nanoparticles for Efficient siRNA Delivery and Cancer Therapy
by Yuling He, Shuwen Guo, Huangxian Ju and Ying Liu
Targets 2023, 1(1), 63-78; https://doi.org/10.3390/targets1010006 - 12 Sep 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1195
Abstract
RNA interference (RNAi) therapy is a promising approach for cancer therapy. However, due to the weak binding affinity between a carrier and small interference RNA (siRNA) and complicated tumor environment, efficient loading and release of siRNA still remain challenging. Here, we design photo-cleavable [...] Read more.
RNA interference (RNAi) therapy is a promising approach for cancer therapy. However, due to the weak binding affinity between a carrier and small interference RNA (siRNA) and complicated tumor environment, efficient loading and release of siRNA still remain challenging. Here, we design photo-cleavable polycations-wrapped upconversion nanoparticles (PC-UCNPs) for spatially and temporally controllable siRNA delivery. The PC-UCNPs are synthesized by in situ reversible addition−fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization of photo-cleaved 5-(2-(dimethylamino)ethoxy)-2-nitrobenzyl acrylat (MENA) monomer and poly(oligo(ethylene oxide) methyl ether acrylate (OEMA) mononer through a chain transfer agent that anchored on the surface of silica-coated upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs@SiO2). After reacting with CH3I, siRNA and hyaluronic acid (HA) are adsorbed on the particle surface to prepare PC-UCNPs/siRNA/HA. The reaction with cell-secreted hyaluronidase (HAase) achieves the intracellular delivery of PC-UCNPs/siRNA/HA, and 980 nm laser irradiation causes siRNA release, which effectively improves the gene silencing efficiency in vitro and suppresses tumor growth in vivo; therefore, these processes have a promising potential application in precision medicine. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Progress in Bioimaging and Targeted Therapy)
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14 pages, 8292 KiB  
Article
An Activatable Nanoscintillator Probe for Detecting Telomerase Activity and Screening Inhibitors In Vivo
by Baoliu Chen, Junduan Dai, Sijie Song, Xianzhe Tang, Yuheng Guo, Ting Wu, Mengnan Wu, Chaojie Hao, Xiaofeng Cheng, Xucong Lin, Yijie Bian, Zhaowei Chen and Huanghao Yang
Targets 2023, 1(1), 34-47; https://doi.org/10.3390/targets1010004 - 14 Jun 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1383
Abstract
Telomerase represents an essential molecular machinery for tumor occurrence and progression and a potential therapeutic target for cancer treatment. Sensitive and reliable analysis of telomerase activity is of significant importance for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. In this study, we developed a [...] Read more.
Telomerase represents an essential molecular machinery for tumor occurrence and progression and a potential therapeutic target for cancer treatment. Sensitive and reliable analysis of telomerase activity is of significant importance for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. In this study, we developed a telomerase-activated nanoscintillator probe for deep-tissue and background-free imaging of telomerase activity and screening telomerase inhibitors in tumor-bearing living mice models. The probe was constructed by modifying lanthanide-doped nanoscintillators with aptamer-containing DNA anchor strands which hybridized with quencher labelled–oligonucleotide strands and telomerase primers. The X-ray-induced fluorescence of the probe was quenched originally but turned on upon telomerase-catalyzed extension of the primer. Benefiting from exceptional tissue penetrating properties and negligible autofluorescence of X-ray excitation, this probe enabled direct detection of telomerase activity in vivo via fluorescence imaging. Furthermore, with the direct, readable fluorescent signals, the probe enabled the screening of telomerase inhibitors in living cells and whole-animal models in the native states of telomerase. This strategy would inspire the development of low autofluorescence and deep tissue bioimaging probes for disease diagnosis and drug development in high-level living settings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Progress in Bioimaging and Targeted Therapy)
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