Carbon Nano-Allotrope/Magnetic Nanoparticle Hybrid Nanomaterials as T2 Contrast Agents for Magnetic Resonance Imaging Applications

Alginate-Derivative Encapsulated Carbon Coated Manganese-Ferrite Nanodots for Multimodal Medical Imaging

Carbon-decorated ferrite nanodots (MNF@Cs) have been enhanced with superparamagnetism and higher fluorescence quantum yield by encapsulation with an alginate derivative to create a cost-effective and less toxic multimodal contrast agent for replacing the conventional heavy metal Gd-containing contrast agent used in MR imaging. The novel surface-engineered particles (MNF@C-OSAs), devoid of labels, can simultaneously provide both longitudinal and transverse relaxation-based magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and fluorescence emission. According to the findings of in vitro studies, the calculated molar relaxivities and the molar radiant efficiencies are indicative of the multimodal efficacy of MNF@C-OSA as compared with MNF@C particles and conventional contrast agents used in medical imaging. MNF@C-OSAs were shown to be significantly biocompatible and negligibly toxic when assessed against A549 cells and zebrafish embryos, indicating their potential for use as theranostic agents.

Nanomaterials as Promising Theranostic Tools in Nanomedicine and Their Applications in Clinical Disease Diagnosis and Treatment

In recent decades, with the rapid development of nanotechnology, nanomaterials have been widely used in the medical field, showing great potential due to their unique physical and chemical properties including minimal size and functionalized surface characteristics. Nanomaterials such as metal nanoparticles and polymeric nanoparticles have been extensively studied in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases that seriously threaten human life and health, and are regarded to significantly improve the disadvantages of traditional diagnosis and treatment platforms, such as poor effectiveness, low sensitivity, weak security and low economy. In this review, we report and discuss the development and application of nanomaterials in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases based mainly on published research in the last five years. We first briefly introduce the improvement of several nanomaterials in imaging diagnosis and genomic sequencing. We then focus on the application of nanomaterials in the treatment of diseases, and select three diseases that people are most concerned about and that do the most harm: tumor, COVID-19 and cardiovascular diseases. First, we introduce the characteristics of nanoparticles according to the excellent effect of nanoparticles as delivery carriers of anti-tumor drugs. We then review the application of various nanoparticles in tumor therapy according to the classification of nanoparticles, and emphasize the importance of functionalization of nanomaterials. Second, COVID-19 has been the hottest issue in the health field in the past two years, and nanomaterials have also appeared in the relevant treatment. We enumerate the application of nanomaterials in various stages of viral pathogenesis according to the molecular mechanism of the complete pathway of viral infection, pathogenesis and transmission, and predict the application prospect of nanomaterials in the treatment of COVID-19. Third, aiming at the most important causes of human death, we focus on atherosclerosis, aneurysms and myocardial infarction, three of the most common and most harmful cardiovascular diseases, and prove that nanomaterials could be involved in a variety of therapeutic approaches and significantly improve the therapeutic effect in cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, we believe nanotechnology will become more widely involved in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases in the future, potentially helping to overcome bottlenecks under existing medical methods.

Biosynthesized Silver Nanoparticles for Cancer Therapy and In Vivo Bioimaging

In the current communication, a simple, environmentally compatible, non-toxic green chemistry process is used for the development of silver nanoparticles (AgZE) by the reaction between silver nitrate (AgNO₃) and the ethanolic leaf extract of Zinnia elegans (ZE). The optimization of AgZE is carried out using a series of experiments. Various physico-chemical techniques are utilized to characterize the nanomaterials. The cell viability assay of AgZE in normal cells (CHO, HEK-293T, EA.hy926, and H9c2) shows their biocompatible nature, which is supported by hemolytic assay using mouse RBC. Interestingly, the nanoparticles exhibited cytotoxicity towards different cancer cell lines (U-87, MCF-7, HeLa, PANC-1 and B16F10). The detailed anticancer activity of AgZE on human glioblastoma cell line (U-87) is exhibited through various in vitro assays. In vivo the AgZE illustrates anticancer activity by inhibiting blood vessel formation through CAM assay. Furthermore, the AgZE nanoparticles when intraperitoneally injected in C57BL6/J mice (with and without tumor) exhibit fluorescence properties in the NIR region (excitation: 710 nm, emission: 820 nm) evidenced by bioimaging studies. The AgZE biodistribution through ICPOES analysis illustrates the presence of silver in different vital organs. Considering all the results, AgZE could be useful as a potential cancer therapeutic agent, as well as an NIR based non-invasive imaging tool in near future.

Carbon Based Nanodots in Early Diagnosis of Cancer

Detection of cancer at an early stage is one of the principal factors associated with successful treatment outcome. However, current diagnostic methods are not capable of making sensitive and robust cancer diagnosis. Nanotechnology based products exhibit unique physical, optical and electrical properties that can be useful in diagnosis. These nanotech-enabled diagnostic representatives have proved to be generally more capable and consistent; as they selectively accumulated in the tumor site due to their miniscule size. This article rotates around the conventional imaging techniques, the use of carbon based nanodots viz Carbon Quantum Dots (CQDs), Graphene Quantum Dots (GQDs), Nanodiamonds, Fullerene, and Carbon Nanotubes that have been synthesized in recent years, along with the discovery of a wide range of biomarkers to identify cancer at early stage. Early detection of cancer using nanoconstructs is anticipated to be a distinct reality in the coming years.

Carbon Nanotubes in Biomedicine

Nowadays, biomaterials have become a crucial element in numerous biomedical, preclinical, and clinical applications. The use of nanoparticles entails a great potential in these fields mainly because of the high ratio of surface atoms that modify the physicochemical properties and increases the chemical reactivity. Among them, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have emerged as a powerful tool to improve biomedical approaches in the management of numerous diseases. CNTs have an excellent ability to penetrate cell membranes, and the sp² hybridization of all carbons enables their functionalization with almost every biomolecule or compound, allowing them to target cells and deliver drugs under the appropriate environmental stimuli. Besides, in the new promising field of artificial biomaterial generation, nanotubes are studied as the load in nanocomposite materials, improving their mechanical and electrical properties, or even for direct use as scaffolds in body tissue manufacturing. Nevertheless, despite their beneficial contributions, some major concerns need to be solved to boost the clinical development of CNTs, including poor solubility in water, low biodegradability and dispersivity, and toxicity problems associated with CNTs' interaction with biomolecules in tissues and organs, including the possible effects in the proteome and genome. This review performs a wide literature analysis to present the main and latest advances in the optimal design and characterization of carbon nanotubes with biomedical applications, and their capacities in different areas of preclinical research.

Carbon Nanotube Assembly and Integration for Applications

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted significant interest due to their unique combination of properties including high mechanical strength, large aspect ratios, high surface area, distinct optical characteristics, high thermal and electrical conductivity, which make them suitable for a wide range of applications in areas from electronics (transistors, energy production and storage) to biotechnology (imaging, sensors, actuators and drug delivery) and other applications (displays, photonics, composites and multi-functional coatings/films). Controlled growth, assembly and integration of CNTs is essential for the practical realization of current and future nanotube applications. This review focuses on progress to date in the field of CNT assembly and integration for various applications. CNT synthesis based on arc-discharge, laser ablation and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) including details of tip-growth and base-growth models are first introduced. Advances in CNT structural control (chirality, diameter and junctions) using methods such as catalyst conditioning, cloning, seed-, and template-based growth are then explored in detail, followed by post-growth CNT purification techniques using selective surface chemistry, gel chromatography and density gradient centrifugation. Various assembly and integration techniques for multiple CNTs based on catalyst patterning, forest growth and composites are considered along with their alignment/placement onto different substrates using photolithography, transfer printing and different solution-based techniques such as inkjet printing, dielectrophoresis (DEP) and spin coating. Finally, some of the challenges in current and emerging applications of CNTs in fields such as energy storage, transistors, tissue engineering, drug delivery, electronic cryptographic keys and sensors are considered.

Multi-Modal Nano Particle Labeling of Neurons

The development of imaging methodologies for single cell measurements over extended timescales of up to weeks, in the intact animal, will depend on signal strength, stability, validity and specificity of labeling. Whereas light-microscopy can achieve these with genetically-encoded probes or dyes, this modality does not allow mesoscale imaging of entire intact tissues. Non-invasive imaging techniques, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), outperform light microscopy in field of view and depth of imaging, but do not offer cellular resolution and specificity, suffer from low signal-to-noise ratio and, in some instances, low temporal resolution. In addition, the origins of the signals measured by MRI are either indirect to the process of interest or hard to validate. It is therefore highly warranted to find means to enhance MRI signals to allow increases in resolution and cellular-specificity. To this end, cell-selective bi-functional magneto-fluorescent contrast agents can provide an elegant solution. Fluorescence provides means for identification of labeled cells and particles location after MRI acquisition, and it can be used to facilitate the design of cell-selective labeling of defined targets. Here we briefly review recent available designs of magneto-fluorescent markers and elaborate on key differences between them with respect to durability and relevant cellular highlighting approaches. We further focus on the potential of intracellular labeling and basic functional sensing MRI, with assays that enable imaging cells at microscopic and mesoscopic scales. Finally, we illustrate the qualities and limitations of the available imaging markers and discuss prospects for in vivo neural imaging and large-scale brain mapping.

Nanostructures of diamond, graphene oxide and graphite inhibit CYP1A2, CYP2D6 and CYP3A4 enzymes and downregulate their genes in liver cells

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE

Currently, carbon nanostructures are vastly explored materials with potential for future employment in biomedicine. The possibility of employment of diamond nanoparticles (DN), graphene oxide (GO) or graphite nanoparticles (GN) for in vivo applications raises a question of their safety. Even though they do not induce a direct toxic effect, due to their unique properties, they can still interact with molecular pathways. The objective of this study was to assess if DN, GO and GN affect three isoforms of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes, namely, CYP1A2, CYP2D6 and CYP3A4, expressed in the liver.

METHODS

Dose-dependent effect of the DN, GO and GN nanostructures on the catalytic activity of CYPs was examined using microsome-based model. Cytotoxicity of DN, GO and GN, as well as the influence of the nanostructures on mRNA expression of CYP genes and CYP-associated receptor genes were studied in vitro using HepG2 and HepaRG cell lines.

RESULTS

All three nanostructures interacted with the CYP enzymes and inhibited their catalytic activity in microsomal-based models. CYP gene expression at the mRNA level was also downregulated in HepG2 and HepaRG cell lines. Among the three nanostructures, GO showed the most significant influence on the enzymes, while DN was the most inert.

CONCLUSION

Our findings revealed that DN, GO and GN might interfere with xenobiotic and drug metabolism in the liver by interactions with CYP isoenzymes responsible for the process. Such results should be considered if DN, GO and GN are used in medical applications.