Multifaceted Engineered Biomimetic Nanorobots Toward Cancer Management

A Path of Novelty from Nanoparticles to Nanobots: Theragnostic Approach for Targeting Cancer Therapy

Pharmaceutical development of cancer therapeutics is a dynamic area of research. Even after decades of intensive work, cancer continues to be a dreadful disease with an ever-increasing global incidence. The progress of nanotechnology in cancer research has overcome inherent limitations in conventional cancer chemotherapy and fulfilled the need for target-specific drug carriers. Nanotechnology uses the altered patho-physiological microenvironment of malignant cells and offers various advantages like improved solubility, reduced toxicity, prolonged drug circulation with controlled release, circumventing multidrug resistance, and enhanced biodistribution. Early cancer detection has a crucial role in selecting the best drug regime, thus, diagnosis and therapeutics go hand in hand. Furthermore, nanobots are an amazing possibility and promising innovation with numerous significant applications, particularly in fighting cancer and cleaning out blood vessels. Nanobots are tiny robots, ranging in size from 1 to 100 nm. Moreover, the nanobots would work similarly to white blood cells, watching the bloodstream and searching for indications of distress. This review articulates the evolution of various organic and inorganic nanoparticles and nanobots used as therapeutics, along with their pros and cons. It also highlights the shift in diagnostics from conventional methods to more advanced techniques. This rapidly growing domain is providing more space for engineering desired nanoparticles that can show miraculous results in therapeutic and diagnostic trials.

Advances of medical nanorobots for future cancer treatments

Early detection and diagnosis of many cancers is very challenging. Late stage detection of a cancer always leads to high mortality rates. It is imperative to develop novel and more sensitive and effective diagnosis and therapeutic methods for cancer treatments. The development of new cancer treatments has become a crucial aspect of medical advancements. Nanobots, as one of the most promising applications of nanomedicines, are at the forefront of multidisciplinary research. With the progress of nanotechnology, nanobots enable the assembly and deployment of functional molecular/nanosized machines and are increasingly being utilized in cancer diagnosis and therapeutic treatment. In recent years, various practical applications of nanobots for cancer treatments have transitioned from theory to practice, from in vitro experiments to in vivo applications. In this paper, we review and analyze the recent advancements of nanobots in cancer treatments, with a particular emphasis on their key fundamental features and their applications in drug delivery, tumor sensing and diagnosis, targeted therapy, minimally invasive surgery, and other comprehensive treatments. At the same time, we discuss the challenges and the potential research opportunities for nanobots in revolutionizing cancer treatments. In the future, medical nanobots are expected to become more sophisticated and capable of performing multiple medical functions and tasks, ultimately becoming true nanosubmarines in the bloodstream.

Research Progress of Bioinspired Nanostructured Systems for the Treatment of Ocular Disorders

How to enhance the bioavailability and prolong the residence time of drugs in the eye present the major barriers to traditional eye delivery. Nanotechnology has been widely used in ocular drug delivery systems because of its advantages of minimizing adverse reactions, decreasing the frequency of administration, prolonging the release time, and improving the bioavailability of the drug in the eye. As natural product-based nanostructured systems, bioinspired nanostructured systems have presented as less toxic, easy to prepare, and cost-effective and have potential application value in the field of nanotechnology. A systematic classification of bioinspired nanostructured systems based on their inspiration source and formulation and their brief applications in disease are presented here. A review of recent research progress of the bioinspired nanostructured systems for the treatment of the anterior and posterior segment of ocular disorders is then presented in detail. Finally, current challenges and future directions with regard to manufacturing bioinspired nanomaterials are provided.

Nanoparticles-based delivery system and its potentials in treating central nervous system disorders

Central nervous system (CNS) disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD), have become severe health concern worldwide. The treatment of the CNS diseases is of great challenges due largely to the presence of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). On the one hand, BBB protects brain from the harmful exogenous molecules via inhibiting their entry into the brain. On the other hand, it also hampers the transport of therapeutic drugs into the brain, resulting in the difficulties in treating the CNS diseases. In the past decades, nanoparticles-based drug delivery systems have shown great potentials in overcoming the BBB owing to their unique physicochemical properties, such as small size and specific morphology. In addition, functionalization of nanomaterials confers these nanocarriers controlled drug release features and targeting capacities. These properties make nanocarriers the potent delivery systems for treating the CNS disorders. Herein, we summarize the recent progress in nanoparticles-based systems for the CNS delivery, including the conventional and innovative systems. The prerequisites, drawbacks and challenges of nanocarriers (such as protein corona formation) in the CNS delivery are also discussed.