BMEMat最新文献

A major bottleneck underlying nanomaterial-based tumor therapy lies in complex biological environment and physiological barriers. Micro/nanorobots with the features of self-propulsion and controllable navigation have gradually become a research hotspot in the tumor therapeutic community, exhibiting their advantages in efficient cargo loading, controllable cargo delivery, stimuli-triggered cargo release, deeper tumor tissue penetration, and enhanced cargo accumulation in tumor tissue. In this review, the self-propulsion and controllable navigation are introduced as two major properties of micro/nanorobots, in which micro/nanorobots are propelled by chemical reactions, physical fields, and biological systems and could be navigated by chemotaxis, remote magnetic guidance, and light. Then, the recent advances of micro/nanorobots for chemotherapy, immunotherapy, photothermal therapy, photodynamic therapy, chemodynamic therapy, and multimodal tumor therapy would be discussed. Finally, the perspective and challenges are also mentioned. It is expected that this review gives an insight into intelligent micro/nanorobots for improved tumor therapy, aiming for more extensive and in-depth investigations, and final applications in the clinic.

Amyloid-β (Aβ) and Tau proteins are the main components of Aβ plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer's disease (AD), and their abnormal aggregation is closely related to the pathogenesis of AD. The production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the aggregation of Aβ and Tau form a vicious circle, which leads to the aggravation of AD. However, inhibiting the aggregation of Aβ and Tau or scavenging ROS is not able to effectively reverse the progression of AD. Herein, we prepared a H₂O₂ responsive multifunctional nanocomposite UCNPs@mSiO₂-MB@AuNPs (abbreviated as USMA) to inhibit the aggregation of Aβ and Tau. In this system, USMA could respond to H₂O₂ to detach gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and lead to the release of methylene blue (MB) from mesoporous silica (mSiO₂), where AuNPs and MB can inhibit Aβ and Tau aggregation, respectively. Furthermore, USMA could consume H₂O₂ by reacting with them. Meanwhile, upconversion luminescence of UCNPs can be used to track USMA and monitor MB release, which could provide information on the content of MB in the lesion area. Importantly, the USMA can effectively reduce the cytotoxicity induced by Aβ and Tau aggregation. This work opens up a possibility to improve therapeutic efficacy for the treatment of AD.

Biomedical engineering is acclaimed as the most effective technological advancement—the stepping- stone toward better human health. An in-depth look into biomedical engineering reveals that emerging materials are recognized as the turbocharger for its progress and the source of innovation. For example, the application of advanced nanomaterials in drug delivery, bioimaging, gene therapy, and so on are pioneering new ways to diagnose and treat cancer and other diseases; tissue repair and organ regeneration are no longer dreams, but attainable miracles because of 3D bioprinted scaffold materials; flexible electronic materials and brain-computer interface chips remove barriers in human-computer interaction, enabling scientists to better interpret the mysteries of life. In addition, functional materials construct diverse diagnosis and treatment equipment, such as microfluidics and major medical devices. Evolving from the deep integration of materials science and biomedical engineering, this popular and innovative research field will enormously benefit people's life and health.

Upholding the philosophy of “BME Materials Benefit Health,” BMEMat was launched under the auspices of Shandong University and Wiley. With a commitment to building the most valuable international platform to share knowledge and information, BMEMat covers all research advances related to functional materials for biomedical applications. The article types include Original Articles, Review Articles, Editorials, Short Communications, and Letters to the Editor (author guidelines are available at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/27517446/homepage/author-guidelines). BMEMat adopts an open-access publishing model and will expand the coverage of Wiley's current materials science journals into biomedical engineering.

BMEMat creates an active community by attracting interdisciplinary research in biomedical engineering and materials science. Our professional editorial board comprises the most experienced scientists in the BME field. The Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Hong Liu from State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, is the winner of National Outstanding Youth Fund and is among the world's highly-cited scientists.

We have nine Associate Editors on board to assist the Editor-in-Chief to expediate the peer review process: Prof. Xiaogang Liu from the National University of Singapore (Singapore), Prof. Wenbo Bu from Fudan University (China), Prof. Chuanbin Mao from University of Oklahoma (USA), Prof. Fan Yi from Shandong University (China), Prof. Andreu Cabot from Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (Spain), Prof. Xiaohu Gao from University of Washington, Seattle (USA), Prof. Angus Johnston from Monash University (Australia), Prof. Xingjie Liang from University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (China), and Prof. Xuebin Yang from University of Leeds (UK).

The elite editorial team with their diversity of insights and expertise will provid

With the development of engineered nanomaterials and nanomedicines, utilization of nanomaterials to generate excessive reactive oxygen species under exogenous ultrasound (US) irradiation for realizing disease therapy, namely sonodynamic therapy (SDT), has attracted widespread attention. Compared with traditional photodynamic therapy, US shows deeper tissue penetration to reach deep-seated location. However, the development of high-efficiency sonosensitizers remains one of the gravest challenges in current related research and future clinical application. Latterly, benefiting from the piezotronic and piezo-phototronic effects, novel sonosensitizers based on piezoelectric semiconductor (PS) nanomaterials have exhibited inspiring application prospects in SDT. In this review, we outline the structures and physicochemical properties of PS nanomaterials that has potential applications in SDT, and introduce the presumed mechanisms of PS nanomaterials in SDT. Then, the latest research progress of PS nanomaterials as sonosensitizers in cancer therapy and antibacterial applications are summarized. Finally, the existing challenges and future development trends in this field are prospected.

Chemodynamic therapy (CDT) utilizes Fenton and/or Fenton-like reactions in the tumor microenvironment (TME) to produce cytotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS, mainly hydroxyl radicals, •OH) for inducing cancer cell death. Since CDT exhibits minimal invasiveness and high tumor specificity by responding to TME (overexpressed hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and glutathione (GSH) generation), a lot of related research has been conducted recently. Photo-facilitated CDT can further enhance the catalytic activity and controllability of the treatment. In addition, other photo-induced therapies, including photodynamic and photothermal therapy (PDT, PTT), may synergize with CDT to obtain boosting treatment efficacy and avoid multidrug resistance. In this minireview, we summarize the recent advances in photo-assisted CDT, including PTT-facilitated CDT and PDT-facilitated CDT. More importantly, the challenges encountered in the treatment process are discussed and potential development directions are suggested to facilitate the clinical translation of photo-assisted CDT in the future.

Recently, variable nanocatalysts have provided novel, highly selective, minimally invasive strategies driven by external physical fields for cancer therapy. In the catalytic reaction, less toxic or nontoxic substances can be in situ converted into toxic agents for cancer suppression. In this review, we systematically summarize the catalytic cancer therapy based on different types of external physical fields, including light, ultrasound, electricity, temperature, X-ray, magnetic field, and microwave. The properties, mechanisms, and advantages of the corresponding external physical fields in cancer therapy are also introduced. Importantly, considering the rapid development of catalytic nanomedicine, the research progress of catalytic cancer therapy driven by external physical fields is discussed. Finally, the remaining challenges and outlooks that catalytic cancer therapy faced are also outlined. We believe that the emerging external physical fields-driven nanocatalytic cancer therapy will provide a new avenue for cancer treatment.

Accurate plantar pressure mapping systems with low dependence on the external power supply are highly desired for preventative healthcare and medical diagnosis. Herein, we propose a self-powered smart insole system that can perform both static and dynamic plantar pressure mapping with high accuracy. The smart insole system integrates an insole-shaped sensing unit, a multi-channel data acquisition board, and a data storage module. The smart insole consists of a 44-pixel sensor array based on triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) to transduce pressure to the electrical signal. By optimizing the sensor architecture and the system's robustness, the smart insole achieves high sensitivity, good error-tolerance capability, excellent durability, and short response–recovery time. Various gait and mobility patterns, such as standing, introversion/extraversion, throwing, and surpassing obstacles, can be distinguished by analyzing the acquired electrical signals. This work paves the way for self-powered wearable devices for gait monitoring, which might enable a new modality of medical diagnosis.

Rapid and accurate detection of microorganisms is critical to clinical diagnosis. As Raman spectroscopy promises label-free and culture-free detection of biomedical objects, it holds the potential to rapidly identify microorganisms in a single step. To stabilize the microorganism for spectrum collection and to increase the accuracy of real-time identification, we propose an optofluidic method for single microorganism detection in microfluidics using optical-tweezing-based Raman spectroscopy with artificial neural network. A fiber optical tweezer was incorporated into a microfluidic channel to generate optical forces that trap different species of microorganisms at the tip of the tweezer and their Raman spectra were simultaneously collected. An artificial neural network was designed and employed to classify the Raman spectra of the microorganisms, and the identification accuracy reached 94.93%. This study provides a promising strategy for rapid and accurate diagnosis of microbial infection on a lab-on-a-chip platform.

Near-infrared (NIR) absorbing materials hold great potential in biomedical applications, such as fluorescence imaging (FLI), photoacoustic imaging (PAI), photodynamic therapy (PDT), and photothermal therapy (PTT). Generally, these materials can be classified into two main categories based on their absorbing wavelengths: the first NIR (NIR-I) (~650–950 nm) absorbing materials and the second NIR (NIR-II) (~1000–1700 nm) absorbing materials. Due to the reduced absorption and scattering of NIR-II light in tissue compared to NIR-I light, NIR-II absorbing materials enable imaging and therapy with improved contrast and deepened penetration, which is in favor of practical applications. Various inorganic materials have been developed for NIR-II phototheranostics in recent years. However, the non-biodegradability and potential toxicity of these materials hinder their further clinical translation. Biocompatible organic materials with potential biodegradability as well as tailored optical property are thus more desired. In this review, we summarize the recent advances of NIR-II absorbing organic nanoagents (ONAs) based on small molecules (SMs) and conjugated polymers (CPs) for PAI and PTT and show our perspectives on future challenges and development of these materials.