Synthetization and Functionalization of Natural,Polymer, and Quantum-Based Carbon Nanodots and Their Application in Biomedicine

Carbon nanodots (CNDs) are a developing branch of nanomaterials and nanoscience. This has generated much more interest in the field and class of biomedicine science by way of unique particular properties, such as high stability, great photoluminescence, easy green synthesis, and simple surface modification. Numerous applications, such as bioimaging, biosensing, and treatment, have made use of CNDs. This review describes the most recent developments in CND research and talks about major changes in the understanding of CNDs and their prospects as biomedical tools. The importance of this work lies in the ability of CNDs to overcome many of the limitations associated with traditional materials used in biomedicine, such as toxicity, poor biocompatibility, and limited functionality. Furthermore, the use of CNDs as drug carriers, imaging agents, and sensors has shown great potential in improving the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases. The novelty of this work lies in the diversity of approaches used in the synthesis and functionalization of CNDs, and the unique properties of CNDs that make them versatile tools for biomedicine. In particular, the ability to tune the size, shape, and surface chemistry of CNDs allows for the creation of tailored materials with specific biomedical applications. The review also discusses the challenges and future prospects of CNDs in biomedicine, including the need for standardization and optimization of CND synthesis, functionalization, and characterization protocols.     

64Cu radiolabeled nanomaterials for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging

The prevalence of positron emission tomography (PET) imaging has advanced biomedical applications for its ultrahigh sensitivity, deep tissue penetration and quantitative visualization of diseases in vivo. ⁶⁴Cu with ideal half-life and decay characteristics has been designed as radioactive probes for disease diagnosis. The currently reported ⁶⁴Cu-labeled nanomaterials have the advantages of long circulation time in serum, good biocompatibility and mature preparation methods, and have been used in vivo PET imaging, biodistribution and pharmacokinetic monitoring, and imaging guided therapy. At the same time, suitable carrier characteristics and radiolabeling strategies are particularly important in the ⁶⁴Cu PET imaging process. In this review, we summarize different imaging probe designs and ⁶⁴Cu radiolabeling strategies, as well as their eventual applications in biomedicine. The potential challenges and prospects of ⁶⁴Cu labeled nanomaterials are also described, which provides broad prospects for radiolabeling strategies and further applications.     

Two-dimensional transition metal chalcogenide nanomaterials for cancer diagnosis and treatment

For more than a decade, the exfoliation of graphene and other layered materials has led to a tremendous amount of research in two-dimensional (2D) materials, among which 2D transition metal chalcogenides (TMCs) nanomaterials have attracted much attention in a wide range of applications including photoelectric devices, lithium-ion batteries, catalysis, and energy conversion and storage owing to their unique photoelectric physical properties. With such large specific surface area, strong near-infrared (NIR) absorption and abundant chemical element composition, 2D TMCs nanomaterials have become good candidates in biomedical imaging and cancer treatment. This review systematically summarizes recent progress on 2D TMCs nanomaterials, which includes their synthesis methods and applications in cancer treatment. At the end of this review, we also highlight the future prospects and challenges of 2D TMCs nanomaterials. It is expected that this work can provide the readers with a detailed overview of the synthesis of 2D TMCs and inspire more novel functional biomaterials based on 2D TMCs for cancer treatment in the future.     

Understanding plasmonic catalysis with controlled nanomaterials based on catalytic and plasmonic metals

Recently, it has been established that the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) excitation in plasmonic nanoparticles can be put toward the acceleration and control of molecular transformations. This field, named plasmonic catalysis, has emerged as a new frontier in nanocatalysis. For metals such as silver (Ag), gold (Au), and copper (Cu), the LSPR excitation can take place in the visible and near-infrared ranges, opening possibilities for the conversion of solar to chemical energy and new/alternative reaction pathways not accessible via conventional, thermally activated catalytic processes. As both catalytic and optical properties can be tuned by controlling several physical and chemical parameters at the nanoscale, design-controlled nanomaterials open the door to unlock the potential of plasmonic catalysis both in terms of fundamental understanding and optimization of performances. In this context, after introducing the fundamentals of plasmonic catalysis, we provide an overview on the current understanding of this field enabled by the utilization of designed-controlled nanostructures based on plasmonic and catalytic metals as model systems. We start by discussing trends in plasmonic catalytic performances and their correlation with nanoparticle size, shape, composition, and structure. Then, we highlight how multimetallic compositions and morphologies containing both catalytic and plasmonic components enables one to extend the use of plasmonic catalysis to metals that are important in catalysis but do not support LSPR excitation in the visible range. Finally, we focus on key challenges and perspectives that are critically important to assist us in designing future energy-efficient plasmonic-catalytic materials.     

金纳米棒——从可控制备与修饰到纳米生物学与生物医学应用

金纳米棒因其独特的光学活性(纵向和横向两个等离子体共振吸收峰,可调范围从可见光区到近红外区)、长径比可调,表面易于修饰,生物相容性良好而使得其在纳米生物学和生物医学等领域具有广泛的应用前景。金纳米棒的合成及表面修饰直接决定着其物理化学性质,进而影响其生物相容性及其在生物医学中的应用。本文综述了金纳米棒的可控制备方法(包括模板法、电化学法、光化学法和晶种法)、表面可控修饰方法及其在纳米生物学和生物医学中的应用新进展,重点总结了金纳米棒的表面可控修饰及其在分子探针、生物传感、生物成像、药物载体、基因载体和光热疗法的最新研究进展。最后针对金纳米棒在生物应用过程中的一些瓶颈问题(如:特异性识别能力需要增强和荧光量子产率尚待提高等)提出了将手性分子或智能聚合物引入到金纳米棒表面进行可控修饰,以期增强其特异性识别能力并提高荧光量子产率,为金纳米棒的发展提供了新的思路。     

Recent advances in analytical and bioanalysis applications of noble metal nanorods

In the last decade the use of anisotropic nanoparticles in analytical and bioanalytical applications has increased substantially. In particular, noble metal nanorods have unique optical properties that have attracted the interest of many research groups. The localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) generated by interaction of light at a specific wavelength with noble metal nanoparticles was found to depend on particle size and shape and on the constituting material and the surrounding dielectric solution. Because of their anisotropic shape, nanorods are characterized by two LSPR peaks: the transverse, fixed at approximately 530 nm, and the longitudinal, which is in the visible–near infra-red region of the spectrum and varies with nanorod aspect ratio. The intense surface plasmon band enables nanorods to absorb and scatter light in the visible and near infra-red regions, and fluorescence and two-photon induced luminescence are also observed. These optical properties, with the reactivity towards binding events that induce changes in the refractive index of the surrounding solution, make nanorods a useful tool for tracking binding events in different applications, for example assembly, biosensing, in-vivo targeting and imaging, and single-molecule detection by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. This review presents the promising strategies proposed for functionalizing gold nanorods and their successful use in a variety of analytical and biomedical applications.     

Enhancement of Nonlinear Optical Scattering by Gold Nanoparticles through Aggregation-Induced Plasmon Coupling in the Near-Infrared

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are regarded as promising building blocks in functional nanomaterials for sensing, drug delivery and catalysis. One remarkable property of these particles is the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR), which gives rise to augmented optical properties through local field enhancement. LSPR also influences the nonlinear optical properties of metal NPs (MNPs) making them potentially interesting candidates for fast, high resolution nonlinear optical imaging. In this work we characterize and discuss the wavelength dependence of the hyper-Rayleigh scattering (HRS) behavior of spherical gold nanoparticles (GNP) and gold nanorods (GNR) in solution, from 850 nm up to 1300 nm, covering the near-infrared (NIR) window relevant for deep tissue imaging. The high-resolution spectral data allows discriminating between HRS and two photon photoluminescence contributions. Upon particle aggregation, we measured very large enhancements (ca. 10⁴) of the HRS intensity in the NIR, which is explained by considering aggregation-induced plasmon coupling effects and local field enhancement. These results indicate that purposely designed coupled nanostructures could prove advantageous for nonlinear optical imaging and biosensing applications.     

多功能金属石墨纳米囊的生物医学应用进展

多功能金属石墨纳米囊由于其良好的稳定性和独特的理化性质, 在生物医学领域受到了广泛关注. 利用石墨烯外壳独特的拉曼散射特征峰作为拉曼标签或者内标, 结合等离子体纳米核优异的表面增强拉曼散射(SERS)和双光子发光(TPL)性能, 可实现SERS生物分析以及肿瘤细胞或组织的Raman/TPL双模成像. 利用表面积大的石墨烯外壳作为药物负载平台, 结合等离子体纳米核的近红外光吸收能力, 可实现光介导的病原菌杀灭以及肿瘤细胞或实体瘤的热疗与化疗的协同治疗. 此外, 利用石墨烯外壳优异的荧光猝灭性能, 还实现了生物分子的荧光检测; 利用磁性纳米核独特的磁学性能, 可实现生物样品的分离和富集、 细菌的原位磁共振成像检测以及磁靶向胃部口服药物的递送. 本综述首先介绍了金属石墨纳米囊的制备、 分类和性质, 然后概述了它们在生物检测、 生物成像和治疗3个方面的应用进展, 并进一步总结了它们的发展现状包括生物毒性和生物医学应用的优缺点, 最后对其在生物医学领域的发展方向做出了展望. 我们期望多功能的金属石墨纳米囊能够为今后的临床生物医学应用提供可靠的纳米平台.     

Emerging Two-Dimensional Nanomaterials for Cancer Therapy

Two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials have drawn tremendous attention due to their unique physicochemical properties and promising applications in the fields of electronics, energy storage, and catalysis. Recently, the biomedicine community has gradually started to recognize the great potential of these nanostructured materials for biomedical applications – in particular those related to cancer therapy. In this review, we provide a brief overview of a few representative 2D nanomaterials, discuss their preparation strategies and physicochemical properties, and highlight their applications in cancer nanomedicine. We expect that this review will shed some light on the new opportunities associated with 2D nanomaterials for biomedical research.     

电催化过氧化氢还原的纳米材料作为潜在的辐射防护剂

纳米材料由于独特的物理化学性质,在生物医学领域显示出许多潜在的应用前景,诸如医学成像、药物输运和生物传感等. 这篇综述总结了对过氧化氢和氧还原表现出好的电催化活性的一些纳米材料显示了辐射防护性能. 作者讨论了这些纳米材料的辐射防护性能来源于它们的类酶活性,因为它们的催化性质表现为和活性氧的快速反应,为清除体内的自由基提供了一条有效通道. 作者也提出了纳米材料的电催化活性和作为临床转化关键的辐射防护性能之间关系的见解. 最后,作者指出了这些纳米材料作为新的辐射防护剂用于辐射防护治疗辅助成份所面临的挑战和将来的研究方向.     

石墨碳纳米材料光学性质在生化传感领域的应用

石墨碳纳米材料因其特殊的光学性质而受到广泛关注。石墨碳纳米材料最引人注目的光学性质之一是其独特的拉曼性质,作为拉曼探针,石墨碳纳米材料在对于复杂生物样品,极端测试条件和定量拉曼检测方面都有很好的应用;除了拉曼性质以外,单壁碳纳米管(SWNTs)独特的近红外二区(NIR-II,1000-1700 nm)荧光性质,具有穿透深度大、分辨率高的荧光成像特点,在生物活体成像领域也得到了很好的应用。除了光致发光特性,石墨碳纳米材料还具有优异的光热转换效应,同时具有比表面积大的特点,被广泛应用在针对肿瘤的热疗及其它疗法协同治疗当中。除此之外,石墨碳纳米材料还是一种高效的信号传导基底,可以猝灭激发态的染料和光敏剂,利用该类性质设计的生物传感器和纳米药物,显现出高灵敏、高选择性的特点。本文主要结合本课题组的工作,总结和探讨了石墨碳纳米材料作为光学探针、光热材料和信号传递基底在生化传感领域的应用。     

Rhodium-Based Nanozymes: Recent Advances and Challenges

Rhodium (Rh) is a non-toxic transition metal used as various nanomaterials with unique structures and properties. Rh-based nanozymes can mimic the activities of natural enzymes, overcome the limitation of the application scope of natural enzymes, and interact with various biological microenvironments to play a variety of functions. Rh-based nanozymes can be synthesized in various ways, and different modification and regulation methods can also enable users to control catalytic performance by adjusting enzyme active sites. The construction of Rh-based nanozymes has attracted great interest in the biomedical field and impacted the industry and other areas. This paper reviews the typical synthesis and modification strategies, unique properties, applications, challenges, and prospects of Rh-based nanozymes. Next, the unique features of Rh-based nanozymes are emphasized, including adjustable enzyme-like activity, stability, and biocompatibility. In addition, we discuss Rh-based nanozymes biosensors and detection, biomedical therapy, and industrial and other applications. Finally, the future challenges and prospects of Rh-based nanozymes are proposed.     

量子点在生物检测中的应用

过去十几年里,量子点从材料科学到生命科学、从基础研究到实际应用都开展了广泛的研究。 量子点在生物成像、光治疗、药物/基因转运、太阳能电池等领域均具有广泛的应用。 通过调节量子点的表面性质,实现量子点与细胞相互作用的可控性是一个关键的问题。 伴随着量子点潜在毒性问题的产生,纳米毒性成为纳米材料安全性评估的重要指标,并且受到科学家们的高度关注。 本文综述了量子点的特性、细胞生物学应用及在生物医药领域相关的细胞毒性研究,并展望了量子点的未来发展趋势。     

磁性纳米材料在循环肿瘤细胞检测中的研究进展

Recently, magnetic nanomaterials are widely applied in biomedical area owing to their unique physical and chemical properties.Herein, we introduce the progress of application of magnetic nanomaterials in cell separation, especially, in detection of circulating tumor cells from human whole blood.     

Gold Nanomaterials: Preparation,Chemical Modification,Biomedical Applications and Potential Risk Assessment

Gold nanomaterials (Au NMs) have attracted increasing attention in biomedicine due to their facile preparation, multifunctional modifications, unique optical and electrical properties, and good biocompatibility. The physicochemical properties of Au NMs at nanoscale, like size, shape, surface chemistry, and near field effects, are rendering Au NMs potent candidates in biomedicine. Thus, risk assessment of negative effects of Au NMs on biological systems is becoming urgent and necessary for future applications. In this review, we summarize up-to-date progresses on the preparation and modification of Au NMs and their biomedical applications, including biosensor, bioimaging and phototherapy, gene/drug delivery. Finally, we discuss the potential risk of Au NMs to biological systems, which is instructive for rationally designing and preparing nanomaterials for safe applications in nanomedicine.     

Melanin/polydopamine-based nanomaterials for biomedical applications

The natural melanin is one kind of ubiquitous biological pigments, which is produced in melanosomes and widely distributed in living organisms. The synthetic melanin, often known as polydopamine(PDA), has similar chemical compositions and physical properties to natural melanin. In recent years, both natural melanin and PDA have aroused increased research interests in biomedical fields owing to their inherent biocompatibility, antioxidant activity, free-radical scavenging, metal ion chelation,strong near-infrared absorption and high photothermal conversion efficiency. Inspired by these fascinating properties, melanin and PDA have been widely used as building blocks for the construction of multifunctional nanoplatforms for various biomedical applications. This review focuses on the state-of-the-art progress in melanin/PDA-based nanomaterials, which covers from their preparation methods to biomedical applications including bioimaging, treatment, theranostics, antibacterial, UV/radiation protection, biosensor and tissue engineering. Moreover, the current trends and the future prospects of melanin/PDA-based nanomaterials are also discussed.     

Chemical Functionalization of Nanodiamonds: Opportunities and Challenges Ahead

Nanodiamond(ND)‐based technologies are flourishing in a wide variety of fields spanning from electronics and optics to biomedicine. NDs are considered a family of nanomaterials with an sp³ carbon core and a variety of sizes, shapes, and surfaces. They show interesting physicochemical properties such as hardness, stiffness, and chemical stability. Additionally, they can undergo ad‐hoc core and surface functionalization, which tailors them for the desired applications. Noteworthy, the properties of NDs and their surface chemistry are highly dependent on the synthetic method used to prepare them. In this Minireview, we describe the preparation of NDs from the materials‐chemistry viewpoint. The different methodologies of synthesis, purification, and surface functionalization as well as biomedical applications are critically discussed. New synthetic approaches as well as limits and obstacles of NDs are presented and analyzed.     

纳米材料-蛋白质界面相互作用的分子机制

纳米材料由于其优异的性能在化工、电子、机械、环境、能源、航天等各个领域已经得到了广泛的应用,并且在生物医学方面的应用越来越受到重视。纳米材料-蛋白质界面相互作用是纳米生物医学领域重要的科学问题,对于纳米材料的生物医学应用以及生物安全性评价至关重要。蛋白质分子与纳米材料在界面的相互作用,一方面可以诱导蛋白质的构象、组装结构甚至功能的改变,另一方面可以引起纳米材料的表面亲疏水性、电荷性质等表面物理化学性质的改变。基于蛋白质与纳米材料相互作用检测技术及结果,本文从分子水平阐述了纳米材料与蛋白质分子在界面之间的相互作用机理及相应的结构与性质的变化,从而可以深化对两者之间复杂的相互作用机制的理解,对于推进纳米材料在生物医学的应用及健康、安全、持续发展具有重要意义。     

Chemistry of two-dimensional MXene nanosheets in theranostic nanomedicine

Transition metal carbide,carbonitride and nitride MXenes,as the emerging two-dimensional(2D)nanomaterials,have aroused burgeoning research interest in a broad range of applications ranging from energy conversion to biomedicines attributing to their distinctive planar nanostructure,physiochemical properties and biological effects.They are featured with fascinating electronic,optical,magnetic,mechanical and thermal properties,which exert significant roles in biomedical applications of 2D MXenes.In this review,we briefly summarize the recent research progress of 2D MXenes and highlight their intrinsic chemistry in theranostic nanomedicines,focusing on the synthetic chemistry for MXenes construction,surface chemistry for surface engineering,physiochemical property for theranostic application and biological chemistry for biosafety evaluation.Furthermore,based on the current achieve ments on MXenes,their potential research directio n,critical challenges and future development in biomedicine are also discussed.It is highly expected that 2D MXene-based nanosystems would have a broad application prospect in theranostic biomedicine provided the current facing critical issues and challenges are adequately solved.     

Inorganic Nanomaterial for Biomedical Imaging of Brain Diseases

In the past few decades, brain diseases have taken a heavy toll on human health and social systems. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), photoacoustic imaging (PA), computed tomography (CT), and other imaging modes play important roles in disease prevention and treatment. However, the disadvantages of traditional imaging mode, such as long imaging time and large noise, limit the effective diagnosis of diseases, and reduce the precision treatment of diseases. The ever-growing applications of inorganic nanomaterials in biomedicine provide an exciting way to develop novel imaging systems. Moreover, these nanomaterials with special physicochemical characteristics can be modified by surface modification or combined with functional materials to improve targeting in different diseases of the brain to achieve accurate imaging of disease regions. This article reviews the potential applications of different types of inorganic nanomaterials in vivo imaging and in vitro detection of different brain disease models in recent years. In addition, the future trends, opportunities, and disadvantages of inorganic nanomaterials in the application of brain diseases are also discussed. Additionally, recommendations for improving the sensitivity and accuracy of inorganic nanomaterials in screening/diagnosis of brain diseases.