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Chronic pain is a major cause of suffering that often accompanies diseases and therapies, affecting approximately 20% of individuals at some point in their lives. However, current treatment modalities, such as anesthetic and antipyretic analgesics, have limitations in terms of efficacy and side effects. Nanomedical technology offers a promising avenue to overcome these challenges and introduce new therapeutic mechanisms. This article reviews the recent research on nanomedicine analgesics, integrating analyses of neuroplasticity changes in neurons and pathways related to the transition from acute to chronic pain. Furthermore, it explores potential future strategies using nanomaterials, aiming to provide a roadmap for new analgesic development and improved clinical pain management. By leveraging nanotechnology, these approaches hold the potential to revolutionize pain treatment by delivering targeted and effective relief while minimizing side effects.

The most prevalent among nervous system tumors significantly jeopardize patient health. For nerve integrity preservation after tumor removal, continuous intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (CINM) is indispensable during microsurgery. The paper highlights the articles about the development of a system that employs soft and stretchable organic electronic materials for CINM. This innovative system harnesses soft and stretchable organic electronic materials and deploys conductive polymer electrodes with low impedance and modulus. These electrodes facilitate uninterrupted near-field action potential recording during surgery, resulting in enhanced signal-to-noise ratios and reduced invasiveness. Additionally, the system's multiplexing capabilities enable precise nerve localization, even in the absence of anatomical landmarks.

In this article number 10.1002/bmm2.12040, Ping Li, Chao Wang and their co-workers systematically studied the inhibitory effects of zinc oxide nanorods (ZnO NRs) on breast cancer cells. They found that the ZnO NRs inhibited the migration and growth of cell populations, as well as suppressed the secretion of multiple cytokines through a microfluidic platform. Subsequently, they utilized a single-cell chip to explore the cell heterogeneity before and after the inhibition. Based on the different behaviors exhibited by the cells, they reclassified cell clusters and ultimately discovered that ZnO NRs had a weaker inhibitory effect on highly invasive and metastatic cell populations. This offers a reasonable risk analysis for the potential application of ZnO NRs in cancer therapy.

In article number 10.1002/bmm2.12024, Yihao Huang, Ximing Chen, and their co-workers have comprehensively summarized the aptamers against SARS-CoV-2. They have described the aptamer-based diagnostic and therapeutic tools for SARS-CoV-2. In addition, they have discussed the introduction of nanostructures to improve the properties of aptamers and broaden their applications in sensing, therapeutics, mechanistic studies and vaccine design. Finally, they have provided a perspective on the future development of aptamers against SARS-CoV-2 or other virus.

The peripheral nervous system (PNS) is a fascinatingly complex and crucial component of the human body, responsible for transmitting vital signals throughout the body's intricate network of nerves. Its efficient functioning is paramount to our health, with any dysfunction often resulting in serious medical conditions, including motor disorders, neurological diseases, and psychiatric disorders. Recent strides in science and technology have made neuromodulation of the PNS a promising avenue for addressing these health issues. Neuromodulation involves modifying nerve activity using a range of techniques, such as electrical, chemical, optical, and mechanical stimulation. Bioelectronics plays a critical role in this effort, allowing for precise, controlled, and sustained stimulation of the PNS. This paper provides an overview of the PNS, discusses the current state of neuromodulation devices, and presents emerging trends in the field, including advances in wireless power transfer and materials, that are shaping the future of neuromodulation.

Nanozymes have emerged as a promising alternative to natural enzymes, effectively addressing natural enzymes' inherent limitation. Versatility and potential applications of nanozyme span across various fields, with catalytic tumor therapy being one prominent area. This has sparked significant interest and exploration in the utilization of nanozymes for targeted cancer treatment. Recent advancements in interdisciplinary research, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and catalytic technology have led to the emergence of multi-metallic-based nanozymes, which exhibit tremendous potential for further development. This review focuses on investigating the synergistic effects of multi-metallic-based nanozymes, aiming to enhance our understanding of their catalytic activities and facilitate their broader applications. We comprehensively survey the remarkable achievements in the synthesis, catalytic mechanisms, and the latest applications of multi-metallic-based nanozymes in cancer catalytic therapy. Furthermore, we identify the current limitations and prospects of multi-metallic-based nanozymes in the development of new materials and the application of novel technologies, along with the potential challenges associated with catalytic cancer therapy. This review underscores the significance of multi-metallic-based nanozymes and emphasizes the need for continued exploration as well as their potential impact on the development of novel materials and the realization of breakthroughs in catalytic tumor therapy.

Cell culture encompasses procedures for extracting cells from their natural tissue and cultivating them under controlled artificial conditions. During this process, various factors, including cell physiological/morphological properties, culture environments, metabolites, and contaminants, have to be precisely controlled and monitored for the survival of cells and the pursuit of the desired properties of the cells. This review summarizes recent advances in sensor technologies and manufacturing strategies for various cell culture platforms using traditional plastics, microfluidic chips, and scalable bioreactors. We share the details of newly developed biological sensors, chemical sensors, optical sensors, electronic chip technologies, and material integration methods. The precise control of parameters based on the feedback by these sensors and electronics enhances cell culture quality and throughput.

As a multifunctional fluorescent nanomaterial, carbon dots (CDs) not only have small size, stable chemical properties, excellent photoluminescence characteristics, but also exhibit good biocompatibility and low toxicity. It has attracted considerable attention in the field of nanotechnology and biological science. CDs contain abundant functional groups on the surface, which not only retain part of the properties of raw materials, but also may have new photoelectric, catalytic, biomedical, and other functions. In this review, we systematically summarize the synthesis methods, modifications, optical properties, and main biological functions of CDs in recent years. The application of functionalized modified CDs in biological detection, biological imaging, photodynamic therapy, photothermal therapy, targeted therapy, drug delivery, gene delivery, protein delivery, and other biomedical fields is introduced. The latest progress of CDs with its own biomedical function in antioxidant, anti-pathogen, and disease treatment is summarized. Finally, we discuss some problems in the practical application of CDs and look forward to the future development trend of self-functional CDs combined with surface modification to achieve multimodal treatment of diseases.

Bone defects are encountered substantially in clinical practice, and bionic scaffolds represent a promising solution for repairing bone defects. However, it is difficult to fabricate scaffolds with bionic structures and reconstruct the microenvironment to fulfill the satisfying repair effects. In this review article, we first discuss various strategies for the design and construction of bionic scaffolds to promote bone defect repair, especially including the structural construction of the scaffold and the integration of bioactive substances together with the application of external stimuli. We then discuss the roles of artificial intelligence and medical imaging in aiding clinical treatment. Finally, we point out the challenges and future outlooks in developing multifunctional bone repair scaffolds, aiming to provide insights for improving bone regeneration efficacy and accelerating clinical translation.

Microneedles (MNs) have been broadly used for transdermal delivery of a variety of drugs, ranging from small chemicals to biological macromolecules, due to the properties of increased drug permeability, minimal invasiveness and improved patient compliance. Despite these MNs can be made of different materials, such as metal, silicon, and glass, polymers have attracted the most attention as a microneedle (MN) matrix because of their excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability, which eliminates the requirement of MN removal after drug release. To satisfy different needs of transdermal drug delivery, polymeric MNs have been fabricated with several special designs. In this review, we summarize the advancement of the fabrication designs of polymeric MNs, including integrated MNs, two-segment MNs, core-shell or multi-layered MNs, and arrowhead MNs. The related biomedical applications of MNs with these different specific designs are also discussed. Finally, we provide our perspectives on the future development of polymeric MNs.