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Applications of Nanomaterials: Theranostic Imaging in Health and Disease

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A special issue of Biomolecules (ISSN 2218-273X). This special issue belongs to the section "Biological and Bio- Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2022) | Viewed by 18430

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Chia-Hao Su

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Guest Editor

Center for General Education, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan
Interests: nanoformulations; molecular imaging; nanoprobes; theranostic strategy; nanomedicine
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Fong-Yu Cheng

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Guest Editor

Department of Chemistry, Chinese Culture University, Taipei 11114, Taiwan
Interests: analytical chemistry; nanomaterial synthesis and application; nanobiomedicine

Prof. Dr. Chien-Chih Ke

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Guest Editor

Department of Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan
Interests: radiobiology; radiation oncology; stem cell biology; molecular imaging

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Cancer, bacterial infections and degenerative diseases are the leading diseases in the world causing various health problems and human deaths each year. Thus, the development of an advanced approach for an efficient therapeutic strategy and early detection is an emerging field. Recently, multifunctional nanomaterials have opened up new opportunities for personalized diagnosis and treatment approaches. These multifunctional nanomaterials mainly involve: i) early detection of disease via specific biomarkers; ii) molecular imaging of tumors, both primary and metastasis; iii) specific delivery of therapeutic agents; iv) photothermal and photodynamic ablation of tumors and bacterial infections; v) overcoming tumor hypoxia; vi) real-time monitoring of treatment in progression. In addition, nanotechnology and nanomaterials stand as potential candidates to conquer degenerative diseases such as Arthritis, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Osteoporosis, etc., via delivery of drug/biomolecules to the target site with greater biocompatibility.

Thus, the main aim of this Special Issue is to cover the recent promising research advancements and novel trends in the field of multifunctional nanomaterials for cancer therapeutics and diagnostics. We are greatly looking forward to receiving the submission of high-quality and original research works that focus on advanced nanomaterials for biomedical health applications.

Prof. Dr. Chia-Hao Su
Dr. Fong-Yu Cheng
Prof. Dr. Chien-Chih Ke
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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. Biomolecules is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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

multifunctional materials
nanomedicine
theranostics
bioimaging
biomaterials
drug delivery
phototherapy
nanoprobes
bacterial infections
immunotherapy
tissue engineering
stem cell therapy
bone fracture healing
Parkinson's disease
Alzheimer's disease
in vitro and in vivo disease models
future perspectives

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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20 pages, 3193 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Cholecystokinin-B Receptor-Targeted Nanoparticle for Imaging and Detection of Precancerous Lesions in the Pancreas

by Jill P. Smith, Hong Cao, Elijah F. Edmondson, Siva Sai Krishna Dasa and Stephan T. Stern

Biomolecules 2021, 11(12), 1766; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/biom11121766 - 25 Nov 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2413

Abstract

Survival from pancreatic cancer remains extremely poor, in part because this malignancy is not diagnosed in the early stages, and precancerous pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN) lesions are not seen on routine radiographic imaging. Since the cholecystokinin-B receptor (CCK-BR) becomes over-expressed in PanIN lesions, it may serve as a target for early detection. We developed a biodegradable fluorescent polyplex nanoparticle (NP) that selectively targets the CCK-BR. The NP was complexed to a fluorescent oligonucleotide with Alexa Fluor 647 for far-red imaging and to an oligonucleotide conjugated to Alexa Fluor 488 for localization by immunohistochemistry. Fluorescence was detected over the pancreas of five- to ten-month-old LSL-Kras^G12D/+; P48-Cre (KC) mice only after the injection of the receptor target-specific NP and not after injection of untargeted NP. Ex vivo tissue imaging and selective immunohistochemistry confirmed particle localization only to PanIN lesions in the pancreas and not in other organs, supporting the tissue specificity. A human pancreas tissue microarray demonstrated immunoreactivity for the CCK-BR only in the PanIN lesions and not in normal pancreas tissue. The long-term goal would be to develop this imaging tool for screening human subjects at high risk for pancreatic cancer to enable early cancer detection. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Nanomaterials: Theranostic Imaging in Health and Disease)

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15 pages, 5477 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Porphyrin Molecules Decorated on Metal-Organic Frameworks for Multi-Functional Biomedical Applications

by Navid Rabiee, Mohammad Rabiee, Soheil Sojdeh, Yousef Fatahi, Rassoul Dinarvand, Moein Safarkhani, Sepideh Ahmadi, Hossein Daneshgar, Fatemeh Radmanesh, Saeid Maghsoudi, Mojtaba Bagherzadeh, Rajender S. Varma and Ebrahim Mostafavi

Biomolecules 2021, 11(11), 1714; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/biom11111714 - 17 Nov 2021

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 3806

Abstract

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have been widely used as porous nanomaterials for different applications ranging from industrial to biomedicals. An unpredictable one-pot method is introduced to synthesize NH₂-MIL-53 assisted by high-gravity in a greener media for the first time. Then, porphyrins were deployed to adorn the surface of MOF to increase the sensitivity of the prepared nanocomposite to the genetic materials and in-situ cellular protein structures. The hydrogen bond formation between genetic domains and the porphyrin’ nitrogen as well as the surface hydroxyl groups is equally probable and could be considered a milestone in chemical physics and physical chemistry for biomedical applications. In this context, the role of incorporating different forms of porphyrins, their relationship with the final surface morphology, and their drug/gene loading efficiency were investigated to provide a predictable pattern in regard to the previous works. The conceptual phenomenon was optimized to increase the interactions between the biomolecules and the substrate by reaching the limit of detection to 10 pM for the Anti-cas9 protein, 20 pM for the single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), below 10 pM for the single guide RNA (sgRNA) and also around 10 nM for recombinant SARS-CoV-2 spike antigen. Also, the MTT assay showed acceptable relative cell viability of more than 85% in most cases, even by increasing the dose of the prepared nanostructures. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Nanomaterials: Theranostic Imaging in Health and Disease)

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11 pages, 3399 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comparison of Conventional and Radiomic Features between ¹⁸F-FBPA PET/CT and PET/MR

by Chien-Yi Liao, Jun-Hsuang Jen, Yi-Wei Chen, Chien-Ying Li, Ling-Wei Wang, Ren-Shyan Liu, Wen-Sheng Huang and Chia-Feng Lu

Biomolecules 2021, 11(11), 1659; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/biom11111659 - 09 Nov 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1979

Abstract

Boron-10-containing positron emission tomography (PET) radio-tracer, ¹⁸F-FBPA, has been used to evaluate the feasibility and treatment outcomes of Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). The clinical use of PET/MR is increasing and reveals its benefit in certain applications. However, the PET/CT is still the most widely used modality for daily PET practice due to its high quantitative accuracy and relatively low cost. Considering the different attenuation correction maps between PET/CT and PET/MR, comparison of derived image features from these two modalities is critical to identify quantitative imaging biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis. This study aimed to investigate the comparability of image features extracted from ¹⁸F-FBPA PET/CT and PET/MR. A total of 15 patients with malignant brain tumor who underwent ¹⁸F-FBPA examinations using both PET/CT and PET/MR on the same day were retrospectively analyzed. Overall, four conventional imaging characteristics and 449 radiomic features were calculated from PET/CT and PET/MR, respectively. A linear regression model and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were estimated to evaluate the comparability of derived features between two modalities. Features were classified into strong, moderate, and weak comparability based on coefficient of determination (r²) and ICC. All of the conventional features, 81.2% of histogram, 37.5% of geometry, 51.5% of texture, and 25% of wavelet-based features, showed strong comparability between PET/CT and PET/MR. With regard to the wavelet filtering, radiomic features without filtering (61.2%) or with low-pass filtering (59.2%) along three axes produced strong comparability between the two modalities. However, only 8.2% of the features with high-pass filtering showed strong comparability. The linear regression models were provided for the features with strong and moderate consensus to interchange the quantitative features between the PET/CT and the PET/MR. All of the conventional and 71% of the radiomic (mostly histogram and texture) features were sufficiently stable and could be interchanged between ¹⁸F-FBPA PET with different hybrid modalities using the proposed equations. Our findings suggested that the image features high interchangeability may facilitate future studies in comparing PET/CT and PET/MR. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Nanomaterials: Theranostic Imaging in Health and Disease)

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Review

Jump to: Research

22 pages, 2292 KiB

Open AccessReview

The Combination of Solid-State Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry as the Basis for the Synthesis of Theranostics Platforms

by Dmitry Korolev, Viktor Postnov, Ilia Aleksandrov and Igor Murin

Biomolecules 2021, 11(10), 1544; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/biom11101544 - 19 Oct 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1898

Abstract

This review presents the main patterns of synthesis for theranostics platforms. We examine various approaches to the interpretation of theranostics, statistics of publications drawn from the PubMed database, and the solid-state and medicinal chemistry methods used for the formation of nanotheranostic objects. We highlight and analyze chemical methods for the modification of nanoparticles, synthesis of spacers with functional end-groups, and the immobilization of medicinal substances and fluorophores. An overview of the modern solutions applied in various fields of medicine is provided, along with an outline of specific examples and an analysis of modern trends and development areas of theranostics as a part of personalized medicine. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Nanomaterials: Theranostic Imaging in Health and Disease)

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16 pages, 3623 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceReview

Peroxidase Mimetic Nanozymes in Cancer Phototherapy: Progress and Perspectives

by Suresh Thangudu and Chia-Hao Su

Biomolecules 2021, 11(7), 1015; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/biom11071015 - 11 Jul 2021

Cited by 35 | Viewed by 7189

Abstract

Nanomaterial-mediated cancer therapeutics is a fast developing field and has been utilized in potential clinical applications. However, most effective therapies, such as photodynamic therapy (PDT) and radio therapy (RT), are strongly oxygen-dependent, which hinders their practical applications. Later on, several strategies were developed to overcome tumor hypoxia, such as oxygen carrier nanomaterials and oxygen generated nanomaterials. Among these, oxygen species generation on nanozymes, especially catalase (CAT) mimetic nanozymes, convert endogenous hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) to oxygen (O₂) and peroxidase (POD) mimetic nanozymes converts endogenous H₂O₂ to water (H₂O) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) in a hypoxic tumor microenvironment is a fascinating approach. The present review provides a detailed examination of past, present and future perspectives of POD mimetic nanozymes for effective oxygen-dependent cancer phototherapeutics. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Nanomaterials: Theranostic Imaging in Health and Disease)

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