MedComm – Biomaterials and Applications最新文献

Precision oncology urgently requires multifunctional nanoplatforms capable of integrating therapy, diagnosis, and immune modulation to overcome tumor heterogeneity and therapeutic resistance. Vitamin-derived nanomaterials, the intrinsic biocompatibility, metabolic activity, and receptor-targeting properties of vitamins, have emerged as versatile tools to address these challenges, particularly within the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME). This review critically examines recent advances in vitamin-based nanoplatforms, categorizing them by solubility: fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) and water-soluble vitamins (B complex, and C). We explore their roles across three critical domains: (i) immunomodulation, including enhancing cancer immunotherapy by activating dendritic cells, reprogramming T-cells, enhancing checkpoint blockade, inhibiting M2 macrophage polarization, regulating T-cells, upregulating anticancer immunity, and remodeling the TME; (ii) stimuli-responsive drug delivery, exploiting vitamin-derived carriers for tumor-specific payload release and spatiotemporal delivery of antigens/adjuvants; and (iii) diagnostic integration, utilizing vitamin-conjugated imaging probes and theranostic hybrids. In addition, we highlight key preclinical breakthroughs demonstrating that these platforms enhance immunotherapeutic efficacy while minimizing toxicity. However, emerging challenges such as scalability, reproducibility, stability, long-term biodistribution, and clinical translatability are systematically analyzed. By synthesizing mechanistic insights, translational progress, and future directions, this review provides a roadmap for leveraging vitamin biology to engineer next-generation nanomedicines for precision cancer management.

MXenes, a family of two-dimensional (2D) transition metal carbides and nitrides, have rapidly gained attention in the field of electrochemiluminescence (ECL) biosensing owing to their exceptional physicochemical properties, including ultrahigh electrical conductivity, tunable surface terminations, large specific surface area, and excellent biocompatibility. These features render MXenes highly suitable for enhancing ECL signal output, facilitating efficient biomolecule immobilization, and enabling versatile functionalization for selective target recognition. This review provides a comprehensive and up-to-date summary of recent progress in MXene-based ECL biosensors, focusing on material advantages, functionalization strategies, sensing mechanisms, and performance metrics. Special emphasis is placed on the role of MXene in signal amplification and real-sample adaptability. Representative case studies are discussed to illustrate their application in detecting clinical biomarkers, pathogenic genes, environmental pollutants, and food contaminants with high sensitivity and specificity. Moreover, practical challenges—including oxidative degradation, dispersibility, and cytotoxicity—are critically evaluated alongside emerging solutions such as surface engineering and polymer encapsulation. By integrating advanced materials science with biosensing technologies, MXene-based ECL platforms are paving the way for next-generation diagnostic tools. This review aims to provide a useful reference for future research and promote the practical deployment of MXene-based biosensors in biomedical and environmental analysis.

Cranial defect repair remains a major challenge in orthopedics and regenerative medicine. Traditional approaches like autologous bone grafts face some limitations, including donor site morbidity and infection risks. Recent advances in nanotechnology have enabled innovative nanomedicine-based strategies for cranial repair. This review highlights current progress, applications, and challenges of nanomedicines, focusing on 10 bioactive categories: Ca-, C-, Ti-, Mg-, Ag-, Mn-, Si-, Se-, bio-based, and carrier-based nanomaterials. Among these, Ca-based nanomedicines, particularly nano-hydroxyapatite, dominate due to their structural similarity to natural bone. C-, Mg-, and Ti-based nanomaterials also show promise, offering excellent mechanical strength, biodegradability, and osteogenic activity. Bio-based and carrier-based systems further enhance biocompatibility and enable controlled drug delivery for improved bone regeneration. Despite their potential, critical challenges remain, including nanotoxicity, degradation control, and long-term clinical safety. Future research should focus on optimizing material properties, enhancing bioactivity, and ensuring translational feasibility. By addressing these hurdles, nanomedicine-based therapies could revolutionize cranial defect repair, providing safer, more efficient alternatives to conventional treatments. This review discusses these advancements while outlining future directions to maximize clinical impact.

Liver diseases—encompassing hepatitis, liver fibrosis, fatty liver, and hepatocellular carcinoma—constitute a formidable global health challenge. Existing treatments are often limited by several key issues, such as low drug accumulation, poor selectivity for target cells, and the toxic side effects of drugs. Lipid-based nanocarriers (LBNCs) have emerged as an up-and-coming platform, leveraging their biocompatibility, versatile drug-loading capacity, and tunable targeting capabilities to overcome these limitations. This comprehensive review critically examines recent advances in the rational design of LBNCs, including liposomes, micelles, nanoemulsions, solid lipid nanoparticles, lipid nanoparticles, biomimetic lipid nanocarriers, and smart responsive lipid nanocarriers, as well as their applications in lipid materials. Subsequently, we delve into their translational application, meticulously reviewing preclinical successes and current clinical progress (encompassing active clinical trials and FDA-approved LBNC formulations). Finally, by analyzing the challenges from rational design to clinical translation, we propose forward-looking perspectives and strategic recommendations to overcome these hurdles and accelerate the realization of LBNC-based therapies in clinical hepatology. This review aims to serve as a valuable reference for researchers, providing in-depth insights into the evolving field of LBNCs and their significant therapeutic potential in hepatology.

Chemotherapeutic drug combination to activate systemic antitumor immunity is appealing to fight metastatic tumors. In this study, copper ion (Cu²⁺) is able to coordinate with NLG919, serving as a nanoplatform (designated as CuN) for drug delivery. Meanwhile, such a metal-coordinated nanomedicine can also activate systemic antitumor immunity through immunogenic cell death (ICD) induction and indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase-1 (IDO1) inhibition. Some representing antitumor agents, including cinnamic acid, mitoxantrone, docetaxel, β-lapachone, tazemetostat and mocetinostat, can be encapsulated into CuN regardless of their different physicochemical characteristics. Taking β-lapachone for example, the drug-carrying CuN (designated as Lap@CuN) can catalyze the production of excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) to suppress tumor cell proliferation and trigger a robust ICD to release damage associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). Consequently, Lap@CuN not only inhibits primary tumor growth through chemotherapy but also reactivates the immune cells to exert an abscopal effect. Benefiting from the immune modulatory effect, Lap@CuN reduces the lung metastasis while not causing obvious side effects on mice. This study presents a universal metal-coordinated nanoplatform for the delivery of chemotherapeutic combinations, offering new insights into the design of combination therapies that can potentiate immunotherapeutic responses.

Transdermal drug delivery systems (TDDS) offer a noninvasive route for delivering active compounds directly to lesion sites while bypassing hepatic first-pass metabolism, thereby reducing systemic side effects and improving patient compliance. As such, TDDS have gained significant attention in disease treatment. However, the stratum corneum presents a major barrier to drug permeation due to its “brick-and-mortar” structure, limiting the effectiveness of transdermal strategies. Developing safe and efficient enhancement methods remains a major challenge. Among various drug delivery platforms, liposomal systems have attracted increasing interest owing to their nanoscale size, biocompatibility, high drug-loading capacity, and ability to protect drugs from enzymatic degradation. These carriers also interact favorably with skin lipids, enhancing drug penetration. Advances in nanotechnology have led to the development of novel liposomal formulations such as ethosomes, transfersomes, niosomes, and pharmacosomes, each tailored to address specific therapeutic needs. This review summarizes recent progress in liposome-based TDDS for both skin and systemic diseases, highlighting their mechanisms of action, therapeutic benefits, and clinical translation potential. Additionally, it explores future directions and ongoing challenges, aiming to provide a reference for advancing liposomal technologies in transdermal drug delivery.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), encompassing Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract with increasing global prevalence. Despite advancements in IBD management, current therapies suffer from limitations, such as premature drug degradation, insufficient retention at inflamed sites, and systemic off-target effects, resulting in suboptimal efficacy and increased adverse events. To address these challenges, this review presents a new paradigm for precision drug delivery in IBD, highlighting three critical strategies: (1) effective transfer—ensuring efficient drug transport to the intestinal region by overcoming complex GI physiological barriers; (2) enhanced retention—prolonging drug residence at inflamed lesions to maximize local therapeutic effects; and (3) pathology-targeting treatment—executing therapeutic interventions based on IBD-associated pathological features to achieve localized treatment and minimize systemic toxicity. We emphasize the integration of advanced biomaterials and engineered therapeutic platforms as enablers of these strategies and illustrate their interactions with IBD pathophysiology. By analyzing recent breakthroughs in drug delivery systems and bioresponsive materials, this review outlines the design principles and translational potential of next-generation IBD therapeutics, offering insights for the development of more effective and patient-centric treatment approaches.

Postoperative adhesions represent a prevalent complication following surgical interventions, commonly forming between soft tissue surfaces within body cavities. These adhesions can give rise to severe consequences, such as chronic pain, organ dysfunction, intestinal obstruction, and infertility. Notwithstanding substantial progress in the prevention of postoperative adhesions, their underlying formation mechanisms remain intricate, and there is currently no fully effective approach to preclude their development. Hydrogels, characterized by their highly hydrophilic three-dimensional network structure, tissue-mimetic mechanical properties, and porous architecture, have demonstrated considerable promise as anti-adhesion barriers and as controlled-release carriers for therapeutic agents. In recent years, hydrogel materials have emerged as a focal point in the prevention and treatment of postoperative adhesions, owing to their excellent biocompatibility, tunable degradability, and injectability. Hydrogels have exhibited remarkable anti-adhesive and tissue-regenerative effects through multiple mechanisms, including physical isolation, anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic actions, and controlled drug delivery. This review summarizes the key properties and recent advancements in hydrogel-based anti-adhesion materials, outlines the types and functional characteristics of hydrogels currently utilized for adhesion prevention, and discusses the challenges encountered in clinical translation. Additionally, we explore future directions for the development of multifunctional composite hydrogels, offering novel perspectives and potential strategies for the effective prevention of postoperative adhesions and promotion of tissue regeneration.

Microneedle (MN) patches are an emerging platform in transdermal drug delivery, offering a minimally invasive, pain-free alternative to conventional administration routes. Their performance, biocompatibility, and clinical potential are fundamentally influenced by the fabrication methods used. This mini-review provides a critical overview of current and emerging MN fabrication techniques. Conventional approaches including micro-molding (MM), microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) fabrication, laser micromachining, three-dimensional (3D) printing, coating methods, and hydrogel-forming technologies are discussed in detail. Additionally, innovative strategies such as electrospinning (Els) and bioprinting (BP) are examined for their ability to enable complex architectures and functional enhancements. Each technique is evaluated based on its operational principles, material compatibility, structural resolution, and scalability. Emphasis is placed on how these fabrication strategies affect mechanical strength, drug delivery efficiency, and clinical translation. The review also highlights the challenges in transitioning from laboratory-scale development to commercial production. By integrating current advancements with future perspectives, this study provides a scientific foundation for guiding the rational design and large-scale fabrication of MN systems. The manuscript aims to support innovation in biomedical, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic applications by offering a comprehensive assessment of the technological landscape.