Chiral Biomaterials for Nanomedicines: From Molecules to Supraparticles

Low temperature synthesis of chiral carbon dots for reducing H2O2 damage

Recently, researches focused towards the chiral nanostructures have attracted vast attention. However, the synthesis of chiral carbon dots (CDs) through one-step method is still rather scarce. Herein, a universal approach to green synthesis of chiral CDs at low temperature was proposed. In brief, L-FruCDs and D-FruCDs were obtained by only heating the fructose and chiral cysteine molecules in the sodium hydroxide aqueous solution under atmospheric pressure. Circular dichroism spectra show that these prepared CDs exhibit opposite chirality ranging from 210 to 260 nm. Specially, the prepared L-FruCDs could reduce the intracellular oxidative damage induced by hydrogen peroxide and display a superior performance than that of D-FruCDs. Mechanism studies indicate that the probably protect mechanism is ascribed to the directly consumption the intracellular ROS. And the clearance efficiency of intracellular reactive oxygen species of L-FruCDs is 3-times than that of D-FruCDs. Furthermore, this newly synthesized method is scalable by replacing fructose precursor with ascorbic acid, sucrose or lactose. In sum, our work provides a new method for the preparation of chiral CDs and achieve a great success in exploring the chiral biological effects at nanoscale.

Editorial for Special Issue: Advanced Technologies for Developing the State-of-the-Art Nanomedicines

This Special Issue aims to introduce advanced technologies that promote the development of nanomedicines [...].

Intravenous nanocrystals: fabrication, solidification, in vivo fate, and applications for cancer therapy

INTRODUCTION

Intravenous nanocrystals (INCs) have shown intrinsic advantages in antitumor applications, particularly their properties of high drug loading, low toxicity, and controllable size. Therefore, it has a very bright application prospect as a drug delivery system.

AREAS COVERED

The ideal formulation design principles, fabrication, solidification, in vivo fate of INCs, the applications in drug delivery system (DDS) and the novel applications are covered in this review.

EXPERT OPINION

It is vital to select a suitable formulation and fabrication method to produce a stable and sterile INCs. Besides, the type of stabilizers and physical characteristics can also influence the in vivo fate of INCs, which is worthy of further studying. Based on wide researches about applications of INCs in cancer, biomimetic INCs are concerned increasingly for its favorable compatibility. The output of these studies suggested that INCs-based drug delivery could be a novel strategy for addressing the delivery of the drug that faces solubility, bioavailability, and toxicity problems.