Cancer cell membrane biomimetic nanosystem for homologous targeted dual-mode imaging and combined therapy.

HYPOTHESIS: The use of tumor cell membrane-camouflaged nanoparticles, specifically the multifunctional biomimetic core-shell nanosystem MPCONPs, can enhance the targeting ability and immune escape functionality of traditional chemotherapy, leading to more precise drug delivery and improved treatment outcomes. EXPERIMENTS: Preparation of MPCONPs: Autologous tumor cell membrane (CM) fragments are collected and used to create a shell for the nanoparticles. A trypsin-sensitive cationic polylysine framework is synthesized and embedded with oxaliplatin (l-OHP) and Ce6-AuNDs (a singlet oxygen generator). The MPCONPs are formed by assembling these components. FINDINGS: MPCONPs, as nanoparticles camouflaged with tumor CM, have enhanced cellular uptake in cancer cells and improved the efficacy of photodynamic therapy (PDT) and chemotherapy (CT). This offers great potential for their use as individualized therapeutic agents for clinical oncology treatment.

Au/Mn nanodot platform for in vivo CT/MRI/FI multimodal bioimaging and photothermal therapy against tongue cancer.

Surgical resection is the main method for oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) treatment. However, the oral physiological function and aesthetics may be seriously damaged during the operation with a high risk of recurrence. Therefore, it is important to develop an alternative strategy with precise guidance for OTSCC treatment. Herein, multifunctional Au/Mn nanodots (NDs) are designed and synthesized. They can perform multimodal bioimaging, including computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) simultaneously, and exhibit bright near-infrared fluorescence imaging (FI) for navigation, and even integrate photothermal therapy (PTT) property. The localization of OTSCC relies on visual and tactile cues of surgeons while lacking noninvasive pretreament labeling and guidance. Au/Mn NDs provide CT/MRI imaging, giving two means of accurate positioning pretherapy. Meanwhile, the fluorescence of the Au/Mn NDs in the near-infrared region (NIR) is beneficial for noninvasive labeling and intuitive observation with the naked eye to determine the tumor boundary during PTT. Further, Au/Mn NDs showed excellent results in ablating tumors in vivo. Above all, the Au/Mn NDs provide a key platform for multimodal bioimaging and PTT in a single nanoagent, which demonstrated attractive performance for OTSCC treatment.

Gold nanodots with stable red fluorescence for rapid dual-mode imaging of spinal cord and injury monitoring.

Spinal cord injury is one of the most devastating complications of spinal surgery, often resulting in numbness, pain or paralysis. Minor injuries in the spinal cord are hard to be identified and existing imaging modalities are unable to provide intraoperative monitoring. Monitoring pathological change at the site of injury is a key factor in staging and treatment decision making as well as prognosis of spinal cord injury. Herein, we offer the fluorescence imaging with intraoperative visualization and detection accuracy for bioimaging to resolve the problem. A novel red fluophore AuNDs caped with glutathione is prepared, which exhibits some advantages such as ultra-small size, negligible biotoxicity, superior water solubility and great biocompatibility. AuNDs fluorophore especially exhibit both of a remarkable photoluminescence stability and high attenuation coefficient to X-rays. In addition, AuNDs can be used as CT contrast agent for spinal cord, which avoid the high toxicity and weak CT signal of traditional iodine contrast. After intradural injection into the spinal cord, AuNDs are transported through the flow of cerebrospinal fluid and bound to the spinal cord parenchyma. not only the bioimage of the entire spinal cord can be achieved as quick as 15 min, but they are also particularly beneficial to long-term imaging of complex physiological environments in vivo, with negligible quenching. Comparing from the bright red fluorescence in adjacent normal spinal cord sites, there is almost no fluorescence in spinal cord at the areas of the injury. We suggest that AuNDs are unable to enter the injury sites of necrosis and ischemia, which promote a different contrast imaging from the normal one. The bright red fluorescence of the AuNDs significantly overcome the restriction of the blue autofluorescence of the biological tissues, providing a clear boundary for observation of the thin spinal cord injury. As a result, we developed the AuNDs with fluorescent and CT dual-mode bioimaging capability to clearly and effectively diagnose spinal cord injury, which are expected to provide a novel visualization imaging regent for clinical use.