An EPR-independent therapeutic strategy: Cancer cell-mediated dual-drug delivery depot for diagnostics and prevention of hepatocellular carcinoma metastasis

"Microflower-Templated" Janus Sheets: Synthesis and Application in Stabilizing Foams

In this study, we proposed a method for fabricating Janus sheets using biological "microflowers" as a sacrificial template. The microflower-templated Janus sheets (MF-JNSs) were employed as a foam stabilizer in foam separation of the whey soybean protein (WSP). The MF-JNSs took inorganic hybrid microflowers (BSA@Cu3 (PO4)2-MF) as template, followed by the sequential attachment of protamine and silica to the surface of the BSA@Cu3(PO4)2-MF. Subsequently, the template was removed using ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid after the silicon dioxide was modified by 3-(methacryloyloxy) propyl trimethoxysilane. Upon template dissolution, the modified silica layer, lacking support from the core, fractured to form the MF-JNSs. This method omitted the step of treating the hollow ball by external force and obtained Janus sheets in one step, indicating that it was simple and feasible. The morphology, structure, and composition of the MF-JNSs were analyzed by SEM, TEM, AFM, XRD, and FT-IR. The MF-JNSs were found to delay the breakage time of the Pickering emulsion, demonstrating their emulsion stabilizing capability. Importantly, they significantly enhanced the foam half-life and foam height of soybean whey wastewater (SWW). Moreover, the recovery percentage and enrichment ratio of WSP, separated from SWW by foam separation, were improved to 81 ± 0.28 and 1.20 ± 0.05%, respectively.

Manipulation of Bowl-Shaped Nanoparticles Self-Assembled from a Bipyridine Pendant Containing Homopolymer

The morphological control and transformation of soft nanomaterials are critical for their physical and chemical properties, which can be achieved by dynamically regulating the hydrophilicity of amphiphilic polymers during self-assembly. Herein, an amphiphilic homopolymer poly(N-(2,2'-bipyridine)-4-acrylamide) (PBPyAA) with bipyridine pendants is synthesized, and the effect of various parameters including initial concentration, temperature, pH, and metal ion coordination on the self-assembly behavior and morphology of the assemblies is investigated. Upon changing the initial concentration of PBPyAA, bowl-shaped nanoparticles (BNPs) with precisely controlled diameter, opening size, and thickness are obtained. With the decrease of pH of the solution, the negatively charged surface of BNPs transforms to a positively charged state. Furthermore, the addition of divalent metal ions (Co2+, Mn2+, and Zn2+) induces the transformation of BNPs to vesicles and giant vesicles. The effect of the above factors on the morphology of the assemblies is essential to change the hydrophilicity of PBPyAA dynamically, leading to variation of the local viscosity during self-assembly. Overall, manipulation of the structural parameters of BNPs and transformation of BNPs to vesicles are achieved, providing fresh insights for the precise control of the morphologies of soft nanomaterials.

Review of the Application of Dual Drug Delivery Nanotheranostic Agents in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Liver Cancer

Liver cancer has high incidence and mortality rates and its treatment generally requires the use of a combination treatment strategy. Therefore, the early detection and diagnosis of liver cancer is crucial to achieving the best treatment effect. In addition, it is imperative to explore multimodal combination therapy for liver cancer treatment and the synergistic effect of two liver cancer treatment drugs while preventing drug resistance and drug side effects to maximize the achievable therapeutic effect. Gold nanoparticles are used widely in applications related to optical imaging, CT imaging, MRI imaging, biomarkers, targeted drug therapy, etc., and serve as an advanced platform for integrated application in the nano-diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Dual-drug-delivery nano-diagnostic and therapeutic agents have drawn great interest in current times. Therefore, the present report aims to review the effectiveness of dual-drug-delivery nano-diagnostic and therapeutic agents in the field of anti-tumor therapy from the particular perspective of liver cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Polymeric Bowl-Shaped Nanoparticles: Hollow Structures with a Large Opening on the Surface

Polymeric bowl-shaped nanoparticles (BNPs) are anisotropic hollow structures with large openings on the surface, which have shown advantages such as high specific area and efficient encapsulation, delivery and release of large-sized cargoes on demand compared to solid nanoparticles or closed hollow structures. Several strategies have been developed to prepare BNPs based on either template or template-free methods. For instance, despite the widely used self-assembly strategy, alternative methods including emulsion polymerization, swelling and freeze-drying of polymeric spheres, and template-assisted approaches have also been developed. It is attractive but still challenging to fabricate BNPs due to their unique structural features. However, there is still no comprehensive summary of BNPs up to now, which significantly hinders the further development of this field. In this review, the recent progress of BNPs will be highlighted from the perspectives of design strategies, preparation methods, formation mechanisms, and emerging applications. Moreover, the future perspectives of BNPs will also be proposed.

Cellular Drug Delivery System for Disease Treatment

The application of variable novel drug delivery system has shown a flowering trend in recent years. Among them, the cell-based drug delivery system (DDS) utilizes the unique physiological function of cells to deliver drugs to the lesion area, which is the most complex and intelligent DDS at present. Compared with the traditional DDS, the cell-based DDS has the potential of prolonged circulation in body. Cellular DDS is expected to be the best carrier to realize multifunctional drug delivery. This paper introduces and analyzes common cellular DDSs such as blood cells, immune cells, stem cells, tumor cells and bacteria as well as relevant research examples in recent years. We hope that this review can provide a reference for future research on cell vectors and promote the innovative development and clinical transformation of cell-based DDS.

A novel vector for magnetic resonance imaging-guided chemo-photothermal therapy for cancer

As an effective strategy for oncotherapy, developing efficacious drug delivery systems for cancer combination therapy remains a major challenge. To improve nanodrug biocompatibility and composite function facilitating their clinical conversion application, a novel nanocarrier was presented by a facile method through conjugating humic acid with gadolinium ions to synthesize HA-Gd with good biocompatibility and dispersity. HA-Gd exhibited high photothermal conversion efficiency up to 38%, excellent photothermal stability, and high doxorubicin (DOX) loading capacity (93%) with pH-responsive release properties. HA-Gd loading DOX showed a combined chemo-photothermal inhibitory effect on tumor cells. Compared with lipid-DOX, HA-Gd-DOX had a more significant inhibitory effect on tumor growth and fewer side effects. T1-weighted MRI contrast toward tumor tissue provided HA-Gd with an MRI-based cancer diagnosis. This study revealed the great potential of humic acids as a novel vector for developing more drug carriers with desirable functions for clinical anticancer therapy.

On-Demand Triggered Chemodynamic Therapy by NIR-II Light on Oxidation-Prevented Bismuth Nanodots

As the least toxic heavy metal, monoelemental bismuth nanomaterials with several superiorities are the ideal theranostic agents. However, bismuth nanoparticles are easily oxidized by oxygen in air or media, limiting their clinical application. In contrast, the oxidization of Bi⁰ to Bi³⁺ can activate the chemodynamic therapy (CDT) by transferring endogenous H₂O₂ into ^•OH. Herein, a well-designed Bi-DMSNs@PCM nanosystem was prepared via in situ growth of Bi nanodots and a coating of phase-change material (PCM) on the surface of dendritic mesoporous silica nanoparticles (DMSNs). The coated PCM protects the Bi nanodots from oxidation by keeping them in the Bi⁰ state for more than 15 d. When irradiated using the near infrared-II (NIR-II) laser with a low power density (0.5 W/cm²), the heat generated from the Bi nanodots melts the PCM shell to trigger CDT through a Fenton-like reaction, accompanied by heat-induced photothermal therapy (PTT). Notably, the CDT can also compensate for the reduced PTT effect caused by the oxidation of Bi nanodots, and a satisfactory treatment effect is realized. Additionally, photoacoustic and computed tomography imaging properties were obtained. Our strategy transfers the detrimental self-oxidation of bismuth to a beneficial therapeutic mode, enhancing the potential of Bi for clinical use.

Nanogels loading curcumin in situ through microemulsion photopolymerization for enhancement of antitumor effects

Drug-loaded nanogels for cancer treatment can limit the free diffusion and distribution of drug molecules in the whole body to reduce undesirable side effects and improve the drug absorption efficiency of the tumor. In this study, curcumin as a model drug was encapsulated into nanogels in situ through microemulsion photopolymerization at 532 nm. Nanogels loaded with curcumin (NG-C) displayed a diameter of around 150 nm with good stability and a low polydispersity index of around 0.1. NG-C had a drug-loading capacity of 8.96 ± 1.16 wt%. The cumulative release of curcumin from NG-C was around 25%, 34% and 55% within 90 h in pH 7.4, 6.8 and 5.0 PBS buffer, respectively. NG-C presented prominent cytotoxicity toward Hep G2 and HeLa cancer cells in vitro. Moreover, NG-C exhibited much a stronger inhibition of tumor growth, necrosis, apoptosis, and the suppression of proliferation compared with curcumin on Hep G2 tumor-bearing nude mice.

Bio-engineered nano-vesicles for IR820 delivery: a therapy platform for cancer by surgery and photothermal therapy

Long-term unsolved health problems from pre-/intra-/postoperative complications and thermal ablation complications pose threats to liver-cancer patients. To reduce the threats, we propose a multimodal-imaging guided surgical navigation system and photothermal therapy strategy to improve specific labeling, real-time monitoring and effective treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma. Using a bioengineering approach, G-Nvs@IR820, a kind of human-cell-membrane nano-vesicle, was generated with growth arrest-specific 6 (Gas6) expressed on the membrane and with near-infrared absorbing dye (IR820) loaded into it, which is proven to be an effective nanoparticle-drug-delivery system for Axl-overexpressing hepatocellular carcinoma. G-Nvs@IR820 shows excellent features in vitro and in vivo. As Gas6 binds to Axl specifically, G-Nvs@IR820 has good targeting ability to the tumor site and also has a good ability to guide the further accurate obliteration of carcinoma from adjacent normal tissue in surgery with its highly resolved fluorescence/photoacoustic/surgical-navigation signals. Moreover, the G-Nvs@IR820 represented a new perspective for photothermal therapy. Briefly, Nvs@IR820 was synthesized at a gram scale with high affinity, specificity, and safety. It has promising potential in clinical application for IGS and PTT in Axl-overexpressing hepatoma carcinoma.

Stimuli Responsive Nitric Oxide-Based Nanomedicine for Synergistic Therapy

Gas therapy has received widespread attention from the medical community as an emerging and promising therapeutic approach to cancer treatment. Among all gas molecules, nitric oxide (NO) was the first one to be applied in the biomedical field for its intriguing properties and unique anti-tumor mechanisms which have become a research hotspot in recent years. Despite the great progress of NO in cancer therapy, the non-specific distribution of NO in vivo and its side effects on normal tissue at high concentrations have impaired its clinical application. Therefore, it is important to develop facile NO-based nanomedicines to achieve the on-demand release of NO in tumor tissue while avoiding the leakage of NO in normal tissue, which could enhance therapeutic efficacy and reduce side effects at the same time. In recent years, numerous studies have reported the design and development of NO-based nanomedicines which were triggered by exogenous stimulus (light, ultrasound, X-ray) or tumor endogenous signals (glutathione, weak acid, glucose). In this review, we summarized the design principles and release behaviors of NO-based nanomedicines upon various stimuli and their applications in synergistic cancer therapy. We also discuss the anti-tumor mechanisms of NO-based nanomedicines in vivo for enhanced cancer therapy. Moreover, we discuss the existing challenges and further perspectives in this field in the aim of furthering its development.

Polymer-Functionalized Upconversion Nanoparticles for Light/Imaging-Guided Drug Delivery

The strong upconversion luminescence (UCL) of upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) endows the nanoparticles with attractive features for combined imaging and drug delivery. UCNPs convert near-infrared (NIR) light into light of shorter wavelengths such as light in the ultraviolet (UV) and visible regions, which can be used for light-guided drug delivery. Although light-responsive drug delivery systems as such have been known for many years, their application in medicine is limited, as strong UV-light can be damaging to tissue; moreover, UV light will not penetrate deeply into the skin, an issue that UCNPs can now address. However, UCNPs, as obtained after synthesis, are usually hydrophobic and require further surface functionalization to be stable in plasma. Polymers can serve as versatile surface coatings, as they can provide good colloidal stability, prevent the formation of a protein corona, provide a matrix for drugs, and be stimuli-responsive. In this Review, we provide a brief overview of the most recent progress in the synthesis of UCNPs with different shapes/sizes. We will then discuss the purpose of polymer coating for drug delivery before summarizing the strategies to coat UCNPs with various polymers. We will introduce the different polymers that have so far been used to coat UCNPs with the purpose to create a drug delivery system, focusing in detail on light-responsive polymers. To expand the application of UCNPs to allow photothermal therapy or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or to simply enhance the loading capacity of drugs, UCNPs were often combined with other materials to generate multifunctional nanoparticles such as carbon-based NPs and nanoMOFs. We then conclude with a discussion on drug loading and release and summarize the current knowledge on the toxicity of these polymer-coated UCNPs.

Amphiphilic Janus nanoparticles for imaging-guided synergistic chemo-photothermal hepatocellular carcinoma therapy in the second near-infrared window

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common and deadly malignant tumors worldwide. With unsatisfactory effects of traditional systematic chemotherapy for HCC owing to its drug resistance, novel therapeutic strategies based on nanomaterials for HCC treatments are promising solutions. To solve the challenges of nanoparticles (NPs)-based drug delivery systems for potential clinical applications, we designed water soluble amphiphilic oleic acid-NaYF4:Yb,Er/polydopamine Au nanoflower Janus NPs (OA-UCNPs/PDA-AuF JNPs) with discrete multi compartment nanostructures as dual-drug delivery systems (DDDSs). This unique nanostructure meets the requirements for containing hydrophobic hydroxycamptothecin/hydrophilic doxorubicin in divided spaces and releasing each drug from non-interfering channels under pH/near-infrared (NIR) dual-stimuli. The amphiphilic DDDSs were utilized to eradicate the tumor burden on a high-fidelity HCC model of a patient-derived xenograft (PDX), and represented an efficient strategy for defeating HCC using multi-modal imaging-guided dual-drug chemo-photothermal therapy in the second NIR window. In addition, the potential mechanisms of action for the DDDSs were evaluated.