Biosensors

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4 pages, 169 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Nanoprobes for Tumor Theranostics

by Jiaoyang Zhu and Zheyu Shen

Biosensors 2022, 12(11), 1022; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios12111022 - 16 Nov 2022

Viewed by 1089

Abstract

This Special Issue of Biosensors, entitled “Nanoprobes for Tumor Theranostics”, aims to report the research progress of using nanoprobes for the diagnosis and therapy of tumors, and promote their applications [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanoprobes for Tumor Theranostics)

Research

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13 pages, 2462 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Folic Acid-Modified Fluorescent-Magnetic Nanoparticles for Efficient Isolation and Identification of Circulating Tumor Cells in Ovarian Cancer

by Yue Pan, Zhili Wang, Jialing Ma, Tongping Zhou, Zeen Wu, Pi Ding, Na Sun, Lifen Liu, Renjun Pei and Weipei Zhu

Biosensors 2022, 12(3), 184; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios12030184 - 21 Mar 2022

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3500

Abstract

Ovarian cancer (OC) is a lethal disease occurring in women worldwide. Due to the lack of obvious clinical symptoms and sensitivity biomarkers, OC patients are often diagnosed in advanced stages and suffer a poor prognosis. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), released from tumor sites [...] Read more.

Ovarian cancer (OC) is a lethal disease occurring in women worldwide. Due to the lack of obvious clinical symptoms and sensitivity biomarkers, OC patients are often diagnosed in advanced stages and suffer a poor prognosis. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), released from tumor sites into the peripheral blood, have been recognized as promising biomarkers in cancer prognosis, treatment monitoring, and metastasis diagnosis. However, the number of CTCs in peripheral blood is low, and it is a technical challenge to isolate, enrich, and identify CTCs from the blood samples of patients. This work develops a simple, effective, and inexpensive strategy to capture and identify CTCs from OC blood samples using the folic acid (FA) and antifouling-hydrogel-modified fluorescent-magnetic nanoparticles. The hydrogel showed a good antifouling property against peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). The FA was coupled to the hydrogel surface as the targeting molecule for the CTC isolation, held a good capture efficiency for SK-OV-3 cells (95.58%), and successfully isolated 2–12 CTCs from 10 OC patients’ blood samples. The FA-modified fluorescent-magnetic nanoparticles were successfully used for the capture and direct identification of CTCs from the blood samples of OC patients. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanoprobes for Tumor Theranostics)

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13 pages, 2784 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Exploring Sensitive Label-Free Multiplex Analysis with Raman-Coded Microbeads and SERS-Coded Reporters

by Umar Azhar, Qazi Ahmed, Saira Ishaq, Zeyad T. Alwahabi and Sheng Dai

Biosensors 2022, 12(2), 121; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios12020121 - 16 Feb 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2652

Abstract

Suspension microsphere immunoassays are rapidly gaining attention in multiplex bioassays. Accurate detection of multiple analytes from a single measurement is critical in modern bioanalysis, which always requires complex encoding systems. In this study, a novel bioassay with Raman-coded antibody supports (polymer microbeads with [...] Read more.

Suspension microsphere immunoassays are rapidly gaining attention in multiplex bioassays. Accurate detection of multiple analytes from a single measurement is critical in modern bioanalysis, which always requires complex encoding systems. In this study, a novel bioassay with Raman-coded antibody supports (polymer microbeads with different Raman signatures) and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-coded nanotags (organic thiols on a gold nanoparticle surface with different SERS signatures) was developed as a model fluorescent, label-free, bead-based multiplex immunoassay system. The developed homogeneous immunoassays included two surface-functionalized monodisperse Raman-coded microbeads of polystyrene and poly(4-tert-butylstyrene) as the immune solid supports, and two epitope modified nanotags (self-assembled 4-mercaptobenzoic acid or 3-mercaptopropionic acid on gold nanoparticles) as the SERS-coded reporters. Such multiplex Raman/SERS-based microsphere immunoassays could selectively identify specific paratope–epitope interactions from one mixture sample solution under a single laser illumination, and thus hold great promise in future suspension multiplex analysis for diverse biomedical applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanoprobes for Tumor Theranostics)

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10 pages, 2212 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

Effective CpG Delivery Using Zwitterion-Functionalized Dendrimer-Entrapped Gold Nanoparticles to Promote T Cell-Mediated Immunotherapy of Cancer Cells

by Huan Chen, Yiming Zhang, Lulu Li, Rui Guo, Xiangyang Shi and Xueyan Cao

Biosensors 2022, 12(2), 71; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios12020071 - 27 Jan 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2402

Abstract

Recently, cell-based immunotherapy has become one of the most promising ways to completely eliminate cancer. The major challenge is to effectively promote a proper immune response to kill the cancer cells by activated T cells. This study investigated the effect of T cell-mediated [...] Read more.

Recently, cell-based immunotherapy has become one of the most promising ways to completely eliminate cancer. The major challenge is to effectively promote a proper immune response to kill the cancer cells by activated T cells. This study investigated the effect of T cell-mediated immunotherapy trigged by Au DENPs-MPC (zwitterion 2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC)-functionalized dendrimer-entrapped gold nanoparticles) loading oli-godeoxynucleotides (ODN) of unmethylated cytosine guanine dinucleotide (CPG). Here, we first synthesized Au DENPs-MPC, evaluated their capability to compress and transfect CpG-ODN to bone marrow dendritic cells (BMDCs), and investigated the potential to use T cells stimulated by matured BMDCs to inhibit the growth of tumor cells. The developed Au DENPs-MPC could apparently reduce the toxicity of Au DENPs, and enhanced transfer CpG-ODN to the BMDCs for the maturation as demonstrated by the 44.41–48.53% increase in different surface maturation markers. The transwell experiments certificated that ex vivo activated T cells display excellent anti-tumor ability, which could effectively inhibit the growth of tumor cells. These results suggest that Au DENPs-MPC can deliver CpG-ODN efficiently to enhance the antigen presentation ability of BMDCs to activate T cells, indicating that T cells-based immunotherapy mediated by Au DENPs-MPC loaded with CpG-ODN may become the most promising treatment of cancer. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanoprobes for Tumor Theranostics)

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17 pages, 4981 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Mechanism Study of Thermally Induced Anti-Tumor Drug Loading to Engineered Human Heavy-Chain Ferritin Nanocages Aided by Computational Analysis

by Shuang Yin, Yongdong Liu, Sheng Dai, Bingyang Zhang, Yiran Qu, Yao Zhang, Woo-Seok Choe and Jingxiu Bi

Biosensors 2021, 11(11), 444; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios11110444 - 11 Nov 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1908

Abstract

Diverse drug loading approaches for human heavy-chain ferritin (HFn), a promising drug nanocarrier, have been established. However, anti-tumor drug loading ratio and protein carrier recovery yield are bottlenecks for future clinical application. Mechanisms behind drug loading have not been elaborated. In this work, [...] Read more.

Diverse drug loading approaches for human heavy-chain ferritin (HFn), a promising drug nanocarrier, have been established. However, anti-tumor drug loading ratio and protein carrier recovery yield are bottlenecks for future clinical application. Mechanisms behind drug loading have not been elaborated. In this work, a thermally induced drug loading approach was introduced to load anti-tumor drug doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) into HFn, and 2 functionalized HFns, HFn-PAS-RGDK, and HFn-PAS. Optimal conditions were obtained through orthogonal tests. All 3 HFn-based proteins achieved high protein recovery yield and drug loading ratio. Size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results showed the majority of DOX loaded protein (protein/DOX) remained its nanocage conformation. Computational analysis, molecular docking followed by molecular dynamic (MD) simulation, revealed mechanisms of DOX loading and formation of by-product by investigating non-covalent interactions between DOX with HFn subunit and possible binding modes of DOX and HFn after drug loading. In in vitro tests, DOX in protein/DOX entered tumor cell nucleus and inhibited tumor cell growth. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanoprobes for Tumor Theranostics)

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Review

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35 pages, 3770 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceReview

Living Sample Viability Measurement Methods from Traditional Assays to Nanomotion

by Hamzah Al-madani, Hui Du, Junlie Yao, Hao Peng, Chenyang Yao, Bo Jiang, Aiguo Wu and Fang Yang

Biosensors 2022, 12(7), 453; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios12070453 - 24 Jun 2022

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 2835

Abstract

Living sample viability measurement is an extremely common process in medical, pharmaceutical, and biological fields, especially drug pharmacology and toxicology detection. Nowadays, there are a number of chemical, optical, and mechanical methods that have been developed in response to the growing demand for [...] Read more.

Living sample viability measurement is an extremely common process in medical, pharmaceutical, and biological fields, especially drug pharmacology and toxicology detection. Nowadays, there are a number of chemical, optical, and mechanical methods that have been developed in response to the growing demand for simple, rapid, accurate, and reliable real-time living sample viability assessment. In parallel, the development trend of viability measurement methods (VMMs) has increasingly shifted from traditional assays towards the innovative atomic force microscope (AFM) oscillating sensor method (referred to as nanomotion), which takes advantage of the adhesion of living samples to an oscillating surface. Herein, we provide a comprehensive review of the common VMMs, laying emphasis on their benefits and drawbacks, as well as evaluating the potential utility of VMMs. In addition, we discuss the nanomotion technique, focusing on its applications, sample attachment protocols, and result display methods. Furthermore, the challenges and future perspectives on nanomotion are commented on, mainly emphasizing scientific restrictions and development orientations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanoprobes for Tumor Theranostics)

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14 pages, 1542 KiB

Open AccessReview

Ion Interference Therapy of Tumors Based on Inorganic Nanoparticles

by Yongjie Chi, Peng Sun, Yuan Gao, Jing Zhang and Lianyan Wang

Biosensors 2022, 12(2), 100; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios12020100 - 6 Feb 2022

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2800

Abstract

As an essential substance for cell life activities, ions play an important role in controlling cell osmotic pressure balance, intracellular acid–base balance, signal transmission, biocatalysis and so on. The imbalance of ion homeostasis in cells will seriously affect the activities of cells, cause [...] Read more.

As an essential substance for cell life activities, ions play an important role in controlling cell osmotic pressure balance, intracellular acid–base balance, signal transmission, biocatalysis and so on. The imbalance of ion homeostasis in cells will seriously affect the activities of cells, cause irreversible damage to cells or induce cell death. Therefore, artificially interfering with the ion homeostasis in tumor cells has become a new means to inhibit the proliferation of tumor cells. This treatment is called ion interference therapy (IIT). Although some molecular carriers of ions have been developed for intracellular ion delivery, inorganic nanoparticles are widely used in ion interference therapy because of their higher ion delivery ability and higher biocompatibility compared with molecular carriers. This article reviewed the recent development of IIT based on inorganic nanoparticles and summarized the advantages and disadvantages of this treatment and the challenges of future development, hoping to provide a reference for future research. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanoprobes for Tumor Theranostics)

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16 pages, 4354 KiB

Open AccessReview

NIR-II Aggregation-Induced Emission Luminogens for Tumor Phototheranostics

by Yonghong Tan, Peiying Liu, Danxia Li, Dong Wang and Ben Zhong Tang

Biosensors 2022, 12(1), 46; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios12010046 - 17 Jan 2022

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 4720

Abstract

As an emerging and powerful material, aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens), which could simultaneously provide a precise diagnosis and efficient therapeutics, have exhibited significant superiorities in the field of phototheranostics. Of particular interest is phototheranostics based on AIEgens with the emission in the range [...] Read more.

As an emerging and powerful material, aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens), which could simultaneously provide a precise diagnosis and efficient therapeutics, have exhibited significant superiorities in the field of phototheranostics. Of particular interest is phototheranostics based on AIEgens with the emission in the range of second near-infrared (NIR-II) range (1000–1700 nm), which has promoted the feasibility of their clinical applications by virtue of numerous preponderances benefiting from the extremely long wavelength. In this minireview, we summarize the latest advances in the field of phototheranostics based on NIR-II AIEgens during the past 3 years, including the strategies of constructing NIR-II AIEgens and their applications in different theranostic modalities (FLI-guided PTT, PAI-guided PTT, and multimodal imaging-guided PDT–PTT synergistic therapy); in addition, a brief conclusion of perspectives and challenges in the field of phototheranostics is given at the end. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanoprobes for Tumor Theranostics)

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21 pages, 3095 KiB

Open AccessReview

Design of Magnetic Nanoplatforms for Cancer Theranostics

by Wangbo Jiao, Tingbin Zhang, Mingli Peng, Jiabao Yi, Yuan He and Haiming Fan

Biosensors 2022, 12(1), 38; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios12010038 - 12 Jan 2022

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 3945

Abstract

Cancer is the top cause of death globally. Developing smart nanomedicines that are capable of diagnosis and therapy (theranostics) in one–nanoparticle systems are highly desirable for improving cancer treatment outcomes. The magnetic nanoplatforms are the ideal system for cancer theranostics, because of their [...] Read more.

Cancer is the top cause of death globally. Developing smart nanomedicines that are capable of diagnosis and therapy (theranostics) in one–nanoparticle systems are highly desirable for improving cancer treatment outcomes. The magnetic nanoplatforms are the ideal system for cancer theranostics, because of their diverse physiochemical properties and biological effects. In particular, a biocompatible iron oxide nanoparticle based magnetic nanoplatform can exhibit multiple magnetic–responsive behaviors under an external magnetic field and realize the integration of diagnosis (magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasonic imaging, photoacoustic imaging, etc.) and therapy (magnetic hyperthermia, photothermal therapy, controlled drug delivery and release, etc.) in vivo. Furthermore, due to considerable variation among tumors and individual patients, it is a requirement to design iron oxide nanoplatforms by the coordination of diverse functionalities for efficient and individualized theranostics. In this article, we will present an up–to–date overview on iron oxide nanoplatforms, including both iron oxide nanomaterials and those that can respond to an externally applied magnetic field, with an emphasis on their applications in cancer theranostics. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanoprobes for Tumor Theranostics)

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25 pages, 8421 KiB

Open AccessReview

Activatable Second Near-Infrared Fluorescent Probes: A New Accurate Diagnosis Strategy for Diseases

by Dong Li, Jie Pan, Shuyu Xu, Shiying Fu, Chengchao Chu and Gang Liu

Biosensors 2021, 11(11), 436; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios11110436 - 2 Nov 2021

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 4799

Abstract

Recently, second near-infrared (NIR-II) fluorescent imaging has been widely applied in biomedical diagnosis, due to its high spatiotemporal resolution and deep tissue penetration. In contrast to the “always on” NIR-II fluorescent probes, the activatable NIR-II fluorescent probes have specific targeting to biological tissues, [...] Read more.

Recently, second near-infrared (NIR-II) fluorescent imaging has been widely applied in biomedical diagnosis, due to its high spatiotemporal resolution and deep tissue penetration. In contrast to the “always on” NIR-II fluorescent probes, the activatable NIR-II fluorescent probes have specific targeting to biological tissues, showing a higher imaging signal-to-background ratio and a lower detection limit. Therefore, it is of great significance to utilize disease-associated endogenous stimuli (such as pH values, enzyme existence, hypoxia condition and so on) to activate the NIR-II probes and achieve switchable fluorescent signals for specific deep bioimaging. This review introduces recent strategies and mechanisms for activatable NIR-II fluorescent probes and their applications in biosensing and bioimaging. Moreover, the potential challenges and perspectives of activatable NIR-II fluorescent probes are also discussed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanoprobes for Tumor Theranostics)

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24 pages, 5338 KiB

Open AccessReview

Applications of Aptamer-Bound Nanomaterials in Cancer Therapy

by Liangxi Zhu, Jingzhou Zhao, Zhukang Guo, Yuan Liu, Hui Chen, Zhu Chen and Nongyue He

Biosensors 2021, 11(9), 344; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios11090344 - 18 Sep 2021

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 4051

Abstract

Cancer is still a major disease that threatens human life. Although traditional cancer treatment methods are widely used, they still have many disadvantages. Aptamers, owing to their small size, low toxicity, good specificity, and excellent biocompatibility, have been widely applied in biomedical areas. [...] Read more.

Cancer is still a major disease that threatens human life. Although traditional cancer treatment methods are widely used, they still have many disadvantages. Aptamers, owing to their small size, low toxicity, good specificity, and excellent biocompatibility, have been widely applied in biomedical areas. Therefore, the combination of nanomaterials with aptamers offers a new method for cancer treatment. First, we briefly introduce the situation of cancer treatment and aptamers. Then, we discuss the application of aptamers in breast cancer treatment, lung cancer treatment, and other cancer treatment methods. Finally, perspectives on challenges and future applications of aptamers in cancer therapy are discussed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanoprobes for Tumor Theranostics)

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