A Facile Approach for Doxorubicine Delivery in Cancer Cells by Responsive and Fluorescent Core/Shell Quantum Dots

Metal Oxide Nanoparticles as Efficient Nanocarriers for Targeted Cancer Therapy: Addressing Chemotherapy-Induced Disabilities

Cancer remains a predominant global health concern, necessitating effective treatment options. Conventional cancer therapies, particularly chemotherapy, often face constraints such as low selectivity, insufficient solubility, and multidrug resistance (MDR), which diminish effectiveness and exacerbate negative effects. Metal oxide nanoparticles (MONPs), such as iron oxide, zinc oxide, and copper oxide, offer a promising solution by enhancing targeted drug delivery, reducing systemic toxicity, and mitigating chemotherapy-induced disabilities like neurotoxicity and cardiotoxicity. Nanocarriers conjugated with drugs can improve drug delivery within the body and enhance their circulation in the bloodstream. Recent advancements in MONP synthesis and functionalization have further improved their stability and drug-loading capacity, making them a valuable tool in cancer treatment. MONPs have distinctive physicochemical characteristics, enabling better imaging, drug encapsulation, and targeted medication delivery to cancerous cells. These nanocarriers enhance treatment effectiveness through focused and controlled drug release, reducing off-target effects and addressing drug resistance. This review aims to explore the potential of MONPs as efficient nanocarriers for anticancer drugs, addressing limitations of traditional chemotherapy such as poor specificity, systemic toxicity, and drug resistance. Additionally, the review discusses recent advancements in MONP synthesis and functionalization, which enhance their stability, drug-loading capacity, and compatibility.

Hyperbranched Polymers: Recent Advances in Photodynamic Therapy against Cancer

Hyperbranched polymers are a class of three-dimensional dendritic polymers with highly branched architectures. Their unique structural features endow them with promising physical and chemical properties, such as abundant surface functional groups, intramolecular cavities, and low viscosity. Therefore, hyperbranched-polymer-constructed cargo delivery carriers have drawn increasing interest and are being utilized in many biomedical applications. When applied for photodynamic therapy, photosensitizers are encapsulated in or covalently incorporated into hyperbranched polymers to improve their solubility, stability, and targeting efficiency and promote the therapeutic efficacy. This review will focus on the state-of-the-art studies concerning recent progress in hyperbranched-polymer-fabricated phototherapeutic nanomaterials with emphases on the building-block structures, synthetic strategies, and their combination with the codelivered diagnostics and synergistic therapeutics. We expect to bring our demonstration to the field to increase the understanding of the structure-property relationships and promote the further development of advanced photodynamic-therapy nanosystems.

Molecular bases for temperature sensitivity in supramolecular assemblies and their applications as thermoresponsive soft materials

Thermoresponsive supramolecular assemblies have been extensively explored in diverse formats, from injectable hydrogels to nanoscale carriers, for a variety of applications including drug delivery, tissue engineering and thermo-controlled catalysis. Understanding the molecular bases behind thermal sensitivity of materials is fundamentally important for the rational design of assemblies with optimal combination of properties and predictable tunability for specific applications. In this review, we summarize the recent advances in this area with a specific focus on the parameters and factors that influence thermoresponsive properties of soft materials. We summarize and analyze the effects of structures and architectures of molecules, hydrophilic and lipophilic balance, concentration, components and external additives upon the thermoresponsiveness of the corresponding molecular assemblies.

Trends in targeted delivery of nanomaterials in colon cancer diagnosis and treatment

Colon cancer is an adenocarcinoma, which subsequently develops into malignant tumors, if not treated properly. The current colon cancer therapy mainly revolves around chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery, but the search continues for more effective interventions. With the advancement of nanoparticles (NPs), it is now possible to diagnose and treat colon cancers with different types, shapes, and sizes of NPs. Nanoformulations such as quantum dots, iron oxide, polymeric NPs, dendrimers, polypeptides, gold NPs, silver NPs, platinum NPs, and cerium oxide have been either extensively used alone or in combination with other nanomaterials or drugs in colon cancer diagnosis, and treatments. These nanoformulations possess high biocompatibility and bioavailability, which makes them the most suitable candidates for cancer treatment. The size and shape of NPs are critical to achieving an effective drug delivery in cancer treatment and diagnosis. Most NPs currently are under different testing phases (in vitro, preclinical, and clinical), whereas some of them have been approved for therapeutic applications. We have comprehensively reviewed the recent advances in the applications of NPs-based formulations in colon cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Effects of Doxorubicin Delivery by Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Quantum Dots on Cancer Cell Growth: Experimental Study and Mathematical Modeling

With 18 million new cases diagnosed each year worldwide, cancer strongly impacts both science and society. Current models of cancer cell growth and therapeutic efficacy in vitro are time-dependent and often do not consider the E_max value (the maximum reduction in the growth rate), leading to inconsistencies in the obtained IC₅₀ (concentration of the drug at half maximum effect). In this work, we introduce a new dual experimental/modeling approach to model HeLa and MCF-7 cancer cell growth and assess the efficacy of doxorubicin chemotherapeutics, whether alone or delivered by novel nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots (N-GQDs). These biocompatible/biodegradable nanoparticles were used for the first time in this work for the delivery and fluorescence tracking of doxorubicin, ultimately decreasing its IC₅₀ by over 1.5 and allowing for the use of up to 10 times lower doses of the drug to achieve the same therapeutic effect. Based on the experimental in vitro studies with nanomaterial-delivered chemotherapy, we also developed a method of cancer cell growth modeling that (1) includes an E_max value, which is often not characterized, and (2), most importantly, is measurement time-independent. This will allow for the more consistent assessment of the efficiency of anti-cancer drugs and nanomaterial-delivered formulations, as well as efficacy improvements of nanomaterial delivery.

Zinc oxide nanoparticles: A comprehensive review on its synthesis, anticancer and drug delivery applications as well as health risks

In recent years, zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) emerged as an excellent candidate in the field of optical, electrical, food packaging and particularly in biomedical research. ZnONPs show cancer cell specific toxicity via the pH-dependent (low pH) dissolution into Zn²⁺ ions, which generate reactive oxygen species and induce cytotoxicity in cancer cells. Further, ZnONPs have also been used as an effective carrier for the targeted delivery of several anticancer drugs into tumor cells. The increasing focus on ZnONPs resulted in the development of various synthesis approaches including chemical, pHysical, and green or biological for the manufacturing of ZnONPs. In this article, at first we have discussed the various synthesis methods of ZnONPs and secondly its biomedical applications. We have extensively reviewed the anticancer mechanism of ZnONPs on different types of cancers considering its size, shape and surface charge dependent cytotoxicity. Photoirradiation with UV light or NIR laser further increase its anticancer activity via synergistic chemo-photodynamic effect. The drug delivery applications of ZnONPs with special emphasis on drug loading mechanism, stimuli-responsive controlled release and therapeutic effects have also been discussed in this review. Finally, its side effects to vital body organs with mechanism via different exposure routes, the future direction of the ZnONPs research and application are also discussed.

pH-triggered intracellular release of doxorubicin by a poly(glycidyl methacrylate)-based double-shell magnetic nanocarrier

Two core-double-shell pH-sensitive nanocarriers were fabricated using Fe₃O₄ as magnetic core, poly(glycidyl methacrylate-PEG) and salep dialdehyde as the first and the second shell, and doxorubicin as the hydrophobic anticancer drug. Two nanocarriers were different in the drug loading steps. The interaction between the first and the second shell assumed to be pH-sensitive via acetal cross linkages. The structure of nanocarriers, organic shell loading, magnetic responsibility, morphology, size, dispersibility, and drug loading content were investigated by IR, NMR, TG, VSM, XRD, DLS, HRTEM and UV-Vis analyses. The long-term drug release profiles of both nanocarriers showed that the drug loading before cross-linking between the first and second shell led to a more pH-sensitive nanocarrier exhibiting higher control on DOX release. Cellular toxicity assay (MTT) showed that DOX-free nanocarrier is biocompatible having cell viability greater than 80% for HEK-293 and MCF-7 cell lines. Besides, high cytotoxic effect observed for drug-loaded nanocarrier on MCF-7 cancer cells. Cellular uptake analysis showed that the nanocarrier is able to transport DOX into the cytoplasm and perinuclear regions of MCF-7 cells. In vitro hemolysis and coagulation assays demonstrated high blood compatibility of nanocarrier. The results also suggested that low concentration of nanocarrier have a great potential as a contrast agent in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Layer-by-Layer Self-Assembly of Polyelectrolytes on Superparamagnetic Nanoparticle Surfaces

Designing and manufacturing multifunctional nanoparticles (NPs) are of considerable interest for both academic and industrial research. Among NPs used in this field, iron oxide NPs show low toxicity compared to metallic ones and are thus of high interest for biomedical applications. In this work, superparamagnetic Fe3-δO4-based core/shell NPs were successfully prepared and characterized by the combination of different techniques, and their physical properties were investigated. We demonstrate the efficiency of the layer-by-layer process to graft polyelectrolytes on the surface of iron oxide NPs. The influence of the polyelectrolyte chain configuration on the magnetic properties of the Fe3-δO4/polymer core/shell NPs was enlightened. The simple and fast process described in this work is efficient for the grafting of polyelectrolytes from surfaces, and thus, derived Fe3-δO4 NPs display both the physical properties of the core and of the macromolecular shell. Finally, the cytotoxicity toward the human THP-1 monocytic cell line of the core/shell NPs was assessed. The results showed that the polymer-capped Fe3-δO4 NPs exhibited almost no toxicity after 24 h of exposure at concentrations up to 25 μg mL-1. Our results show that these smart superparamagnetic nanocarriers with stealth properties are promising for applications in multimodal cancer therapy, including drug delivery.

ZAIS-based colloidal QDs as fluorescent labels for theranostics: physical properties, biodistribution and biocompatibility

In recent years there has been an increase in interest in the use of colloidal quantum dots (QDs) in biology and medicine. In particular, QDs can be a perspective nanoscale object for theranostics, in which due to the specific accumulation of drug-loaded QDs in the pathological focus, its simultaneous visualization and targeted therapeutic influence occur. One of the serious limitations of the use of QDs in medicine is their potential toxicity, especially when the nanocrystal material contains elements such as cadmium or plumbum. Therefore, it is promising to develop labels based on QDs of relatively less toxic semiconductors of group I-III-VI, such as CuInS2 and AgInS2. In this study, biodistribution and biocompatibility of QDs based on the AgInS2 compound with a ZnS shell (ZAIS) are considered. In the study of biodistribution, the accumulation of QDs in organs such as liver, lungs, heart and kidneys was revealed. It was shown that QDs in the dose range from 2 • 10–7 to 4 • 10–6 M/L at intravenous administration in rats does not have a significant effect on body mass dynamics and basic hematological parameters for 30 days. Thus, ZAIS QDs can be used to visualize tissues and organs in various pathological processes, and immobilization of the drugs on their surface will allow to approach their application for theranostics.