Theranostic MRI: the future for Type 1 diabetes management?

Newer therapeutic approaches towards the management of diabetes mellitus: an update

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic condition characterized by an elevation of blood glucose levels, resulting from defects in insulin secretion, insulin action, or both. The prevalence of the disease has been rapidly rising all over the globe at an alarming rate. Despite advances in the management of diabetes mellitus, it remains a growing epidemic that has become a significant public health burden due to its high healthcare costs and its complications. There is no cure has yet been found for the disease, however, treatment modalities include insulin and antidiabetic agents along with lifestyle modifications are still the mainstay of therapy for diabetes mellitus. The treatment spectrum for the management of diabetes mellitus has rapidly developed in recent years, with new class of therapeutics and expanded indications. This article focused on the emerging therapeutic approaches other than the conventional pharmacological therapies, which include stem cell therapy, gene therapy, siRNA, nanotechnology and theranostics.

Advances of functional nanomaterials for magnetic resonance imaging and biomedical engineering applications

Functional nanomaterials have been widely used in biomedical fields due to their good biocompatibility, excellent physicochemical properties, easy surface modification, and easy regulation of size and morphology. Functional nanomaterials for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can target specific sites in vivo and more easily detect disease-related specific biomarkers at the molecular and cellular levels than traditional contrast agents, achieving a broad application prospect in MRI. This review focuses on the basic principles of MRI, the classification, synthesis and surface modification methods of contrast agents, and their clinical applications to provide guidance for designing novel contrast agents and optimizing the contrast effect. Furthermore, the latest biomedical advances of functional nanomaterials in medical diagnosis and disease detection, disease treatment, the combination of diagnosis and treatment (theranostics), multi-model imaging and nanozyme are also summarized and discussed. Finally, the bright application prospects of functional nanomaterials in biomedicine are emphasized and the urgent need to achieve significant breakthroughs in the industrial transformation and the clinical translation is proposed. This article is categorized under: Nanotechnology Approaches to Biology > Nanoscale Systems in Biology Diagnostic Tools > Diagnostic Nanodevices Therapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Nanomedicine for Oncologic Disease.

Gadolinium as an MRI contrast agent

MRI contrast is often enhanced using a contrast agent. Gd³⁺-complexes are the most widely used metallic MRI agents, and several types of Gd³⁺-based contrast agents (GBCAs) have been developed. Furthermore, recent advances in MRI technology have, in part, been driven by the development of new GBCAs. However, when designing new functional GBCAs in a small-molecular-weight or nanoparticle form for possible clinical applications, their functions are often compromised by poor pharmacokinetics and possible toxicity. Although great progress must be made in overcoming these limitations and many challenges remain, new functional GBCAs with either small-molecular-weight or nanoparticle forms offer an exciting opportunity for use in precision medicine.

Facile synthesis of ternary CdMnS QD-based hollow nanospheres as fluorescent/magnetic probes for bioimaging

Fluorescent/magnetic dual-functional CdMnS hollow nanospheres with bright tunable emission and strong MR signal were synthesized via a facile Ostwald-ripening process with promising applications in bioimaging.