MedComm – Biomaterials and Applications最新文献

Platelets play a pivotal role in cancer detection and metastasis, serving both as novel liquid biopsy biomarkers and as versatile carriers in nanomedicine. Tumor-educated platelets (TEPs) undergo molecular alterations influenced by the tumor microenvironment, with their RNA profiles—including mRNA, circular RNA, and long noncoding RNA—offering potential for early cancer detection, prognosis, and treatment monitoring. Additionally, platelet-derived extracellular vesicles (PEVs) and activation markers (e.g., P-selectin, CD40L) further enhance their diagnostic utility. However, standardization of platelet biomarker analysis remains a challenge for clinical implementation. Concurrently, nanotechnology is leveraging the natural biocompatibility and targeting properties of platelets to develop platelet-based drug delivery systems and bioinspired nanomaterials, improving therapeutic precision and efficacy. Moreover, artificial intelligence (AI)-driven biomarker analysis is refining TEP and PEV profiling, accelerating advances in precision oncology. Future research should focus on establishing standardized protocols, optimizing platelet-based nanomedicine, and integrating AI to enhance diagnostic accuracy and therapeutic efficacy. By bridging biological insights with clinical applications, platelets hold significant promise as transformative tools in precision oncology.

The growth of hybrid nanostructures composed of inorganic materials and biomolecules has garnered significant attention due to their potential applications across diverse fields. However, the mutual competition mechanisms at the bio-nano interface, particularly from the perspective of dimensional evolution, have been seldom explored. Herein, we ascertain a distinct dimensional evolution by establishing a synergistic growth model system that hybridizes protein fibrils and gold nanostructures. Specifically, ionic gold precursors increase in dimension from zero to three dimensions, while amyloid proteins conversely decrease from three to one dimension. This dimensional evolution has important implications for reducing the bio-nano interface and potentially limiting harmful coupling between biomolecules and inorganic nanomaterials, despite the fact that they can act as templates or scaffolds for each other to promote dimensional evolution. The findings highlight the potential of these hybrid systems in biomedical applications, such as targeted drug delivery and bioimaging, by leveraging the unique dimensional coupling between proteins and gold nanostructures. This work provides insights into the complex bio-nano interactions between organisms and inorganic materials, emphasizing the need for precise and rational design of bio-nano systems suitable for clinical applications.

Cardiac tissue engineering presents a viable strategy for the targeted therapy of myocardial infarction (MI), overcoming the limitations of existing therapies in cardiac repair and regeneration. This review explores the potential of stimuli-responsive biomaterials that engage with the cardiac environment by reacting to various environmental stimuli including pH, temperature, enzymes, ultrasound, and reactive oxygen species. These materials enable precise drug delivery, modulate cellular responses, and enhance tissue regeneration. Biomaterials such as hydrogels, polymers, chitosan, collagen, and alginate improve the accuracy and effectiveness of targeted and localized delivery of drugs, stem cells, and growth factors, thus improving the precision and efficacy of treatments. The review looks at the ability of these biomaterials to mimic the complex biochemical and mechanical cues of a healthy myocardium. The challenges and prospects of clinical applications for stimuli-responsive biomaterials are discussed, highlighting their transformative potential in targeted cardiac therapy while improving outcomes for patients with MI.

The emergence and widespread development of drug-resistant bacteria pose significant challenges to global public health. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one of the most typical multidrug-resistant bacteria, capable of causing life-threatening diseases and exhibiting insensitivity to multiple antibiotics. Therefore, the development of antibiotic-independent antimicrobial approaches is critically important. MXene Ti₃C₂T_x, a promising two-dimensional nanomaterial, possesses both photothermal and photodynamic effects. In this study, we investigated the photodynamic and photothermal mechanism of MXene Ti₃C₂T_x against MRSA under irradiation with two different light sources: 460 nm short-wavelength blue light and 808 nm near-infrared light. Here, we prepared a stable MXene Ti₃C₂T_x nanosheet dispersion system and confirmed its effective antimicrobial activity against MRSA. Furthermore, we observed differences in the photothermal and photodynamic effects of MXene Ti₃C₂T_x under different light sources. These findings provide a comprehensive understanding of the photoreactive properties of MXene Ti₃C₂T_x and guide clinical strategies for treating MRSA infections.

In a recent paper published in Nature Materials, Gong et al. identified the tumor cell-derived small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) as a defense system that impedes selective delivery of nanoparticles to tumors. The authors also discovered that this defense system could be a prospective target for enhancing the efficacy of nanoparticle-based tumor therapies (Figure 1).¹

In the past 30 years, research in the field of cancer nanomedicine has seen tremendous expansion. Various types of nanoparticles, including lipid-based nanoparticles, polymeric nanoparticles, and inorganic nanoparticles, have been developed for targeted delivery to kill tumor cells and/or regulate the tumor microenvironment. These nanoparticles can encapsulate a variety of therapeutic payloads, including small molecules, biologics, and nucleic acids.² However, tumoritropic accumulation of cancer nanomedicines vary widely from tumor to tumor and from patient to patient.² Nanomedicines primarily accumulate passively in solid tumors through the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect; however, factors such as tumor etiology, type, location, size, stage, microenvironment, vascular density, and blood perfusion status can largely cause the heterogeneity of the EPR effect. For instance, hepatocellular carcinoma and renal cell carcinoma exhibit higher vascular density, resulting in a more pronounced EPR effect compared to pancreatic cancer and prostate cancer.² Achieving high concentrations of nanomedicine at the tumor site remains a critical research focus in the field.

To increase the concentration of nanoparticles accumulated inside the tumor, solid stress, dense extracellular matrix, and abnormal vascular structures within the tumor microenvironment have been considered. Despite the considerable efforts of numerous researchers, on average, only a small fraction of injected nanoparticles reach tumors.³

Recent studies have found that tumor cells secrete numerous exotic proteins into the tumor microenvironment, which can mediate tumor cell communication, induce immunosuppression, or promote metastasis. These effects are all mediated by nucleic acids or proteins wrapped inside the exosomes. However, the physicochemical function of high-concentration exosomes at the tumor site is a long-neglected direction of research. Especially in the field of drug delivery, how the nanoscale of exosomes, composition, physical interactions, etc., affect drug delivery is an unexplored field. The size of exosomes directly influences their permeability and cellular uptake within the tumor microenvironment. Furthermore, the composition of exosomes determines their circulation time in the bloodstream and their interactions with cells. Additionally, there may be physical interactions between exosomes and nanoparticles, such as van der Waals forces. This ass

Strong and tough biofibers, which have comparable mechanical performances with conventional synthetic fibers derived from petrochemicals, have demonstrated superior advantages in sustainability and biocompatibility and have provided innovative solutions for various areas over synthetic fibers. Studies on strong and tough biofibers have addressed the growing demand for sustainable products and biomedical applications. Here, recent advances in strong and tough biofibers are summarized and discussed, including their materials, spinning methods, strengthening strategies, and various applications. Four natural materials commonly used for biofibers are introduced first, including spider silk, silkworm silk, chitin, and cellulose, and then four different spinning techniques developed to prepare strong and tough biofibers are summarized, including dry spinning, wet spinning, 3D printing, and microfluidic spinning. Strengthening strategies, such as dual crosslinking and post treatment, are applied to further improve the mechanical performances of biofibers, and their applications, especially in clothing, suture, would dressing, tissue engineering, and sensor, are discussed in detail. Continuous innovations in strong and tough biofibers hold a great promise for driving further advancements and offering solutions to related global challenges.

Poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG), is a well-known biocompatible and biodegradable polymer with a wide range of applications such as surface coating of nano/micro materials for improving their biocompatibility, immunological inertness, and systemic circulation. However, PEG is a nonfluorescent material limiting its application in bioimaging. So herein, a novel fluorescent PEG polymer was synthesized using a facile method. For this, in-house water-soluble compound [4,5-bis-{(N- carboxy methyl benzimidazolium) methyl} acridine] dibromide}] (b-ACA) was synthesized and used to modify nonfluorescent PEG polymer into a novel fluorescent PEG polymer (PEG-b-ACA) by one-pot method. PEG-b-ACA displayed a range of fluorescence from green to red with respect to the concentration of b-ACA being used. The synthesized PEG-b-ACA mixture was evaluated for its antimicrobial and antiviral efficacy against E. coli, S. aureus, C. albicans, and Bacteriophage Lambda, and it showed significant inhibition of microbial and viral growth. The mixture was also evaluated for its cellular uptake and anticancer efficacy using 4T1 breast cancer cells, and it showed significant results in both. The results demonstrated that the PEG-b-ACA mixture is a potent antimicrobial, antiviral, and anticancer agent when compared with PEG and b-ACA alone. Therefore, the synthesized PEG-b-ACA mixture could be an effective material for various biomedical applications.

At present, cardiovascular infection such as infective endocarditis (IE) has become a major disease with a high mortality rate. The essence of IE is actually the infection associated with biofilm formation, which can occur not only on native heart valves, but also on prosthetic heart valves and cardiovascular implants such as left heart assist devices, vascular grafts, and pacemakers. Biofilms are bacterial aggregates that are composed of a self-produced extracellular polymeric substance (EPS), which is difficult and challenging for the treatment of cardiovascular infections. Therefore, it is important to explore and develop effective anti-biofilm methods for the treatment of biofilm-associated cardiovascular infection. This review provides comprehension of strategies for degrading EPS in biofilm, the application of nanodrug delivery systems for biofilm-related infections, the strategy for targeting drug resistance genes through gene editing technology and strategy for targeting quorum sensing in biofilm. Furthermore, this review also provides some strategies to optimize the antibacterial properties of cardiovascular implants to prevent biofilm formation. The applications of these strategies will provide novel preventive and therapeutic ways for biofilm-associated cardiovascular infections.

Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Salmonella enteritidis (S. enteritidis) are common food-borne pathogens, which pose a very significant threat to the healthcare environment. The rapid detection of relevant bacteria can help control their rapid spread, while the traditional bacterial culture detection method is time-consuming and not conducive to the rapid detection of pathogens. Recently, new detection methods for related pathogenic bacteria have emerged, but these methods are relatively complex, and few methods can detect two bacteria at the same time. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop multi-target, convenient, and fast pathogen detection methods. This method successfully constructed an enzyme-free fluorescent biosensor based on the adapter-mediated strand displacement reaction to detect E. coli ATCC25922 and S. enteritidis ATCC13076. This method had an ultrasensitive detection limit of 0.7 CFU/mL and 0.61 CFU/mL within 20 min, with a broad linear range of 34–10⁵ CFU/mL of E. coli and 17–10⁶ CFU/mL of S. enteritidis, respectively. Importantly, the spiked recovery of the three clinical fluid samples performed well, which proved that this method had the potential to detect E. coli and S. enteritidis in clinical samples. The sensor constructed by this method can detect dual targets at the same time, increasing the possibility of large-scale clinical use.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have a moderate impact on the therapy of severe acute pancreatitis. This study seeks to improve the therapeutic effectiveness of MSCs. By preconditioning them via the upregulation of critical anti-inflammatory molecules, so diminishing immune rejection, we are creating a path for more effective treatments. Aloe emodin (AE), a natural active monomer with low-toxicity, in conjunction with interferon gamma (IFN-γ) (I-AE), markedly upregulated immunosuppressive molecules indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase and programmed cell death-Ligand 1 in MSCs, thereby pharmacologically modulating the inhibition of CD4 − T cell activation in vitro effectively. Transient transfection of small interfering RNA silenced the class II transactivator (CIITA) gene expression of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UMSCs) interfering with human leukocyte antigen class II expression to avert immune rejection. AE-loaded nanoparticles efficiently maintained proliferation inhibition of MSCs within a manageable range by sustained release. UMSCs pretreated by I-AE with CIITA silencing preserved pancreatic structure as evidenced by diminished acinar cell death, reduced pancreatic edema and inflammation, and significantly lowered serum amylase levels The encouraging potential of UMSCs with CIITA gene silencing combined with AE and IFN-γ pretreatment offers optimism for clinical application in pancreatitis therapy.