Functionalized Gold Nanorods for Tumor Imaging and Targeted Therapy

Gold nanorods,as an emerging noble metal nanomaterial with unique properties,have become the new exciting focus of theoretical and experimental studies in the past few years.The structure and function of gold nanorods,especially their biocompatibility, optical property,and photothermal effects,have been attracting more and more attention.Gold nanorods exhibit great potential in applications such as tumor molecular imaging and photothermal therapy.In this article,we review some of the main advances made over the past few years in the application of gold nanorods in surface functionalization,molecular imaging,and photothermal therapy. We also explore other prospective applications and discuss the corresponding concepts,issues,approaches,and challenges,with the aim of stimulating broader interest in gold nanorod-based nanotechnology and improving its practical application.

结核病精准治疗的现状与未来

精准医学在结核病领域中的应用尚处于起步阶段,结核病的精准治疗离不开快速准确的诊断、有效的抗结核药物、新型前沿技术的综合应用。近年来,结核病精准治疗主要聚焦于耐药结核病、宿主导向治疗及纳米靶向治疗,并取得了一定的成果,为结核病,特别是耐药结核病的治疗提供了重要手段。在未来,新药研发和新兴技术的应用是结核病精准治疗的关注重点,需要逐步开展相关的临床试验研究,客观评价其应用价值和前景。

Real-time monitoring of tumor vascular disruption induced by radiofrequency assisted gadofullerene

The anti-vascular therapy has been extensively studied for high performance tumor therapy by suppressing the tumor angiogenesis or cutting off the existing tumor vasculature. We have previously reported a novel anti-tumor treatment technique using radiofrequency （RF）-assisted ga- dofullerene nanocrystals （GFNCs） to selectively disrupt the tumor vasculature. In this work, we further revealed the changes on morphology and functionality of the tumor vas-culature during the high-performance RF-assisted GFNCs treatment in vivo. Here, a dearly evident mechanism of this technique in tumor vascular disruption was elucidated. Based on the H22 tumor bearing mice with dorsal skin flap chamber （DSFC） mode] and the dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging （DCE-MRI） technique, it was revealed that the GFNCs would selectively inset in the gaps of tumor vas-culature due to the innately incomplete structures and unique microenvironment of tumor vasculature,＇ and they damaged the surrounding endothelia cells excited by the RF to induce a phase transition accompanying with size expansion. Soon afterwards, the blood flow of the tumor blood vessels was permanently shut off, causing the entire tumor vascular net- work to collapse within 24 h after the treatment. The RF-as- sistant GFNCs technique was proved to aim at the tumor vasculatnre precisely, and was harmless to the normal vascu- lature. The current studies provide a rational explanation on the high efficiency anticancer activity of the RF-assisted GFNCs treatment, suggesting a novel technique with potent clinical application.

Biotinylated polyurethane-urea nanoparticles for targeted theranostics in human hepatocellular carcinoma

Over the past years, significant efforts have been devoted to explore novel drug delivery and detection strategies for simultaneous therapy and diagnostics. The development of biotinylated polyurethane-urea nanoparticles as theranostic nanocarriers for targeted drug and plasmid delivery, for fluorescence detection of human hepatocellular carcinoma cells, is described herein. These targeted nanoparticles are specifically designed to incorporate biotin into the polymeric matrix, since many tumor types overexpress receptors for biotin as a mechanism to boost uncontrolled cell growth. The obtained nanoparticles were spherical, exhibited an average diameter ranging 110-145 nm, and showed no cytotoxicity in healthy endothelial cells. Biotinylated nanoparticles are selectively incorporated into the perinuclear and nuclear area of the human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line, HepG2, in division, but not into growing, healthy, human endothelial cells. Indeed, the simultaneous incorporation of the anticancer drugs, phenoxodiol or sunitinib, together with plasmid DNA encoding green fluorescent protein, into these nanoparticles allows a targeted pharmacological antitumor effect and furthermore, selective transfection of a reporter gene, to detect these cancer cells. The combined targeted therapy and detection strategy described here could be exploited for liver cancer therapy and diagnostics, with a moderate safety profile, and may also be a potential tool for other types of cancer.

Vapreotide-modified nanomicelle as a targeted nanocarrier for delivering paclitaxel to the tumors with overexpression of somatostatin receptors

Somatostatin receptors （SSTRs） were widely expressed in many tumor cells. As a somatostatin analogue, vapreotide （VAP） can be exploited as a modifier for targeting tumor therapy based on its high affinity to SSTR. In this study, we conjugated α-NH2 of exocyclic n-phenylalanine （D-Phe） of vapreotide to N-hydroxysuccinimidyl-PEG2000-DSPE （NHS-PEG-DSPE）, and the resulted DSPE-PEG-VAP was used as a targeting component to construct the targeted micelles for delivering paclitaxel （VAP-M-PTX） through a thin-film hydration method. Similar particle size, zeta potential, drug encapsulation efficiencies, drug release behaviors and hemolysis effects were observed between the targeted micelles （VAP-M-PTX） and the non-targeted micelles （M-PTX）. In MCF-7 cells, significantly higher intracellular fluorescence intensity （1.5-fold） was determined by flow cytometry after incubation of coumarin-6 loaded targeted micelles （VAP-M-Cou） for 3 h compared with non-targeted mieelles （M-Cou）, and similar finding was observed confocal microscopy. Furthermore, in comparison with non-targeted formulations, higher antitumor efficacy and higher drug accumulation were found in MCF-7 tumors in nude mice after intravenous injection of the targeted micelles. In conclusion, we believed that the vapreotide-modified nanomicelles could be a promising targeted nanocarrier for delivering anticancer drugs to the tumors with overexpression of somatostatin receptors.