The nonradiative conversion of light energy into heat (photothermal therapy, PTT) or sound energy (photoacoustic imaging, PAI) has been intensively investigated for the treatment and diagnosis of ...cancer, respectively. By taking advantage of nanocarriers, both imaging and therapeutic functions together with enhanced tumour accumulation have been thoroughly studied to improve the pre-clinical efficiency of PAI and PTT. In this review, we first summarize the development of inorganic and organic nano photothermal transduction agents (PTAs) and strategies for improving the PTT outcomes, including applying appropriate laser dosage, guiding the treatment via imaging techniques, developing PTAs with absorption in the second NIR window, increasing photothermal conversion efficiency (PCE), and also increasing the accumulation of PTAs in tumours. Second, we introduce the advantages of combining PTT with other therapies in cancer treatment. Third, the emerging applications of PAI in cancer-related research are exemplified. Finally, the perspectives and challenges of PTT and PAI for combating cancer, especially regarding their clinical translation, are discussed. We believe that PTT and PAI having noteworthy features would become promising next-generation non-invasive cancer theranostic techniques and improve our ability to combat cancers.
Albumin is the most abundant circulating protein in plasma and has recently emerged as a versatile protein carrier for drug targeting and for improving the pharmacokinetic profile of peptide or ...protein based drugs. Three drug delivery technologies related to albumin have been developed, which include the coupling of low-molecular weight drugs to exogenous or endogenous albumin, conjugating bioactive proteins by albumin fusion technology (AFT), and encapsulation of drugs into albumin nanoparticles. This review article starts with a brief introduction of human serum albumin (HSA), and then summarizes the mainstream chemical strategies of developing HSA binding molecules for coupling with drug molecules. Moreover, we also concisely condense the recent progress of the most important clinical applications of HSA-binding platforms, and specify the current challenges that need to be met for a bright future of HSA-binding.
The complexity, diversity, and heterogeneity of tumors seriously undermine the therapeutic potential of treatment. Therefore, the current trend in clinical research has gradually shifted from a focus ...on monotherapy to combination therapy for enhanced treatment efficacy. More importantly, the cooperative enhancement interactions between several types of monotherapy contribute to the naissance of multimodal synergistic therapy, which results in remarkable superadditive (namely "1 + 1 > 2") effects, stronger than any single therapy or their theoretical combination. In this review, state-of-the-art studies concerning recent advances in nanotechnology-mediated multimodal synergistic therapy will be systematically discussed, with an emphasis on the construction of multifunctional nanomaterials for realizing bimodal and trimodal synergistic therapy as well as the intensive exploration of the underlying synergistic mechanisms for explaining the significant improvements in synergistic therapeutic outcome. Furthermore, the featured applications of multimodal synergistic therapy in overcoming tumor multidrug resistance, hypoxia, and metastasis will also be discussed in detail, which may provide new ways for the efficient regression and even elimination of drug resistant, hypoxic solid, or distant metastatic tumors. Finally, some design tips for multifunctional nanomaterials and an outlook on the future development of multimodal synergistic therapy will be provided, highlighting key scientific issues and technical challenges and requiring remediation to accelerate clinical translation.
Photoacoustic (PA) imaging is a biomedical imaging modality that provides functional information regarding the cellular and molecular signatures of tissue by using endogenous and exogenous contrast ...agents. There has been tremendous effort devoted to the development of PA imaging agents, and gold nanoparticles as exogenous contrast agents have great potential for PA imaging due to their inherent and geometrically induced optical properties. The gold-based nanoparticles that are most commonly employed for PA imaging include spheres, rods, shells, prisms, cages, stars and vesicles. This article provides an overview of the current state of research in utilizing these gold nanomaterials for PA imaging of cancer, atherosclerotic plaques, brain function and image-guided therapy.
Modalities for photo‐triggered anticancer therapy are usually limited by their low penetrative depth. Sonotheranostics especially sonodynamic therapy (SDT), which is different from photodynamic ...therapy (PDT) by the use of highly penetrating acoustic waves to activate a class of sound‐responsive materials called sonosensitizers, has gained significant interest in recent years. The effect of SDT is closely related to the structural and physicochemical properties of the sonosensitizers, which has led to the development of new sound‐activated materials as sonosensitizers for various biomedical applications. This Review provides a summary and discussion of the types of novel sonosensitizers developed in the last few years and outlines their specific designs and the potential challenges. The applications of sonosensitizers with various functions such as for imaging and drug delivery as well as in combination with other treatment modalities would provide new strategies for disease therapy.
A sound approach: Photo‐triggered anticancer therapeutic modalities are usually limited by their low penetrative depth. An alternative approach is sonodynamic therapy (SDT), which uses high‐penetrating acoustic waves to activate sound‐responsive materials. This Review gives a summary and discussion of such sonosensitizers.
Photoacoustic tomography (PAT) can offer structural, functional and molecular contrasts at scalable observation level. By ultrasonically overcoming the strong optical scattering, this imaging ...technology can reach centimeters penetration depth while retaining high spatial resolution in biological tissue. Recent extensive research has been focused on developing new contrast agents to improve the imaging sensitivity, specificity and efficiency. These emerging materials have substantially accelerated PAT applications in signal sensing, functional imaging, biomarker labeling and therapy monitoring etc. Here, the potentials of different optical probes as PAT contrast agents were elucidated. We first describe the instrumental embodiments and the measured functional parameters, then focus on emerging contrast agent-based PAT applications, and finally discuss the challenges and prospects.
Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have been extensively explored as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents. With the increasing complexity in the structure of modern MNPs, the classical ...Solomon–Bloembergen–Morgan and the outer‐sphere quantum mechanical theories established on simplistic models have encountered limitations for defining the emergent phenomena of relaxation enhancement in MRI. Recent progress in probing MRI relaxivity of MNPs based on structural features at the molecular and atomic scales is reviewed, namely, the structure–relaxivity relationships, including size, shape, crystal structure, surface modification, and assembled structure. A special emphasis is placed on bridging the gaps between classical simplistic models and modern MNPs with elegant structural complexity. In the pursuit of novel MRI contrast agents, it is hoped that this review will spur the critical thinking for design and engineering of novel MNPs for MRI applications across a broad spectrum of research fields.
Structure–relaxivity relationships between different structural features of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) and the resulting T1 and T2 relaxivities in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are reviewed. The factors of size, shape, crystal structure, surface functionality, and assembly structure of magnetic nanoparticles are summarized to decipher how physical properties of MNPs influence proton relaxation in MRI.
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are cancer cells that circulate in the blood stream after being naturally shed from original or metastatic tumors, and can lead to a new fatal metastasis. CTCs have ...become a hotspot research field during the last decade. Detection of CTCs, as a liquid biopsy of tumors, can be used for early diagnosis of cancers, earlier evaluation of cancer recurrence and chemotherapeutic efficacy, and choice of individual sensitive anti-cancer drugs. Therefore, CTC detection is a crucial tool to fight against cancer. Herein, we classify the currently reported CTC detection technologies, introduce some representative samples for each technology, conclude the advantages and limitations, and give a future perspective including the challenges and opportunities of CTC detection.
Chemodynamic therapy (CDT) uses the tumor microenvironment‐assisted intratumoral Fenton reaction for generating highly toxic hydroxyl free radicals (•OH) to achieve selective tumor treatment. ...However, the limited intratumoral Fenton reaction efficiency restricts the therapeutic efficacy of CDT. Recent years have witnessed the impressive development of various strategies to increase the efficiency of intratumoral Fenton reaction. The introduction of these reinforcement strategies can dramatically improve the treatment efficiency of CDT and further promote the development of enhanced CDT (ECDT)‐based multimodal anticancer treatments. In this review, the authors systematically introduce these reinforcement strategies, from their basic working principles, reinforcement mechanisms to their representative clinical applications. Then, ECDT‐based multimodal anticancer therapy is discussed, including how to integrate these emerging Fenton reinforcement strategies for accelerating the development of multimodal anticancer therapy, as well as the synergistic mechanisms of ECDT and other treatment methods. Eventually, future direction and challenges of ECDT and ECDT‐based multimodal synergistic therapies are elaborated, highlighting the key scientific problems and unsolved technical bottlenecks to facilitate clinical translation.
The advances in reinforcement strategies to increase the efficiency of intratumoral Fenton reaction are discussed. Then, multimodal anticancer therapies involving enhanced chemodynamic therapy and mechanisms of synergy are highlighted. Finally, the major challenges and further improvements of this evolving field are elaborated.
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