High Performance,Multiplexed Lung Cancer Biomarker Detection on a Plasmonic Gold Chip

Diagnosis of lung cancer is performed using a plasmonic gold (pGOLD) chip through multiplexed near‐infrared (NIR) detection of carcino‐embryonic antigen (CEA), Cyfra21‐1, and neuron‐specific enolase (NSE) in the serum samples of patients. With ≈50‐fold enhancement of NIR fluorescence, multiplexed microarray analysis of CEA, Cyfra21‐1, and NSE in 10 μL of human serum or whole blood samples on pGOLD chip leads to markedly improved limit‐of‐quantification, limit‐of‐detection, reproducibility, and higher diagnostic sensitivity and specificity compared to traditional biochips and Luminex technology currently in use in hospitals.     

Plasmonic Electrically Functionalized TiO2 for High‐Performance Organic Solar Cells

Optical effects of the plasmonic structures and the materials effects of the metal nanomaterials have recently been individually studied for enhancing performance of organic solar cells (OSCs). Here, the effects of plasmonically induced carrier generation and enhanced carrier extraction of the carrier transport layer (i.e., plasmonic‐electrical effects) in OSCs are investigated. Enhanced charge extraction in TiO₂ as a highly efficient electron transport layer by the incorporation of metal nanoparticles (NPs) is proposed and demonstrated. Efficient device performance is demonstrated by using Au NPs incorporated TiO₂ at a plasmonic wavelength (560–600 nm), which is far longer than the originally necessary UV light. By optimizing the concentration ratio of the Au NPs in the NP‐TiO₂ composite, the performances of OSCs with various polymer active layers are enhanced and efficiency of 8.74% is reached. An integrated optical and electrical model, which takes into account plasmonic‐induced hot carrier tunneling probability and extraction barrier between TiO₂ and the active layer, is introduced. The enhanced charge extraction under plasmonic illumination is attributed to the strong charge injection of plasmonically excited electrons from NPs into TiO₂. The mechanism favors trap filling in TiO₂, which can lower the effective energy barrier and facilitate carrier transport in OSCs.     

Biomaterials Functionalized with MSC Secreted Extracellular Vesicles and Soluble Factors for Tissue Regeneration

The therapeutic benefits of mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) transplantation are attributed to their secreted factors, including extracellular vesicles (EVs) and soluble factors. The potential of employing the MSC secretome as an alternative acellular approach to cell therapy is being investigated in various tissue injury indications, but EVs administered via bolus injections are rapidly sequestered and cleared. However, biomaterials offer delivery platforms to enhance EV retention rates and healing efficacy. This review highlights the mechanisms underpinning the therapeutic effects of MSC‐EVs and soluble factors as effectors of immunomodulation and tissue regeneration, conferred primarily via their nucleic acid and protein contents. Discussed is how manipulating the cell culture microenvironment or genetic modification of MSCs can further augment the potency of their secretions. The most recent advances in the development of EV‐functionalized biomaterials that mediate enhanced angiogenesis and cell survival, while attenuating inflammation and fibrosis, are presented. Finally, some technical challenges to be considered for the clinical translation of biomaterials carrying MSC‐secreted bioactive cargo are discussed.     

Plasmonic Lipid Bilayer Membranes for Enhanced Detection Sensitivity of Biolabeling Fluorophores

Plasmonics based sensing, using the surface plasmon resonance of metal nanoparticles, has been effectively demonstrated in various applications. Extending this methodology to cell and artificial lipid bilayer membranes is extremely beneficial in enhancing the sensitivity of the detection of binding and cellular transport of molecules across such membranes. Here, the creation of an artificial plasmonic biomembrane template is demonstrated and used to show the enhanced detection sensitivity of certain widely used biomarker molecules. The efficacy of these templates is explained in terms of the ability of the hydrophobic polymer grafted gold nanoparticles used to organize, penetrate, and fluidize the membranes. The enhancement of photoluminescence of the dye molecules used occurs over a reasonably large spectral range as compared to the plasmon resonance of gold nanoparticles. The results could, possibly, be extended to cellular membranes with relevant modifications, as well as to the detection of any other biological molecule appropriately labeled with fluorescent dye molecules, and demonstrate the versatility of these plasmonic bioinspired platforms as potential biochemical sensors.     

Multilayer Graphene with a Rippled Structure as a Spacer for Improving Plasmonic Coupling

The plasmonic coupling, the enhanced electromagnetic field occurring through a uniform and small separation between metallic particles, is required for better application to localized surface plasmon resonance. Graphene has been studied as a good spacer candidate because of its precise controllability at subnanoscale. Here, the enhancement of plasmonic coupling among metallic nanoparticles (NPs) uniformly spread out on both sides of a graphene spacer is experimentally and simulatively investigated. Additionally, the post‐evaporated flat structure is rippled along one direction to reduce the separation between nanoparticles. As the amount of rippling increases, the enhancement factor (EF) of the plasmonic coupling increases almost linearly or quadratically depending on the size of nanoparticles. Such a highly rippled nanostructure is believed to not only increase the plasmonic coupling in either side of the spacer but lead to a higher density of “hot spots” through the spacer gap also. The observed EFs of a structure with the MLG spacer are consistent with the simulation results obtained from the classical electrodynamics. On the other hand, the SLG case appears to be inconsistent with such a classical approach, indicating that the plasmon tunneling through the thin barrier is prevalent in the case of the SLG spacer.     

Plasmonic Nanoneedle Arrays with Enhanced Hot Electron Photodetection for Near-IR Imaging

Hot electron photodetection based on metallic nanostructures is attracting significant attention due to its potential to overcome the limitation of the traditional semiconductor bandgap. To enable efficient hot electron photodetection for practical applications, it is necessary to achieve broadband and perfect light absorption within extremely thin plasmonic nanostructures using cost-effective fabrication techniques. In this study, an ultrahigh optical absorption (up to 97.3% in average across the spectral range of 1200−2400 nm) is demonstrated in the ultrathin plasmonic nanoneedle arrays (NNs) with thickness of 10 nm, based on an all-wet metal-assisted chemical etching process. The efficient hot electron generation, transport, and injection at the nanoscale apex of the nanoneedles facilitate the photodetector to achieve a record low noise equivalent power (NEP) of 4.4 × 10⁻¹² W Hz^−0.5 at the wavelength of 1300 nm. The hot-electron generation and injection process are elucidated through a transport model based on a Monte Carlo approach, which quantitatively matches the experimental data. The photodetector is further integrated into a light imaging system, as a demonstration of the exceptional imaging capabilities at the near-IR regime. The study presents a lithography-free, scalable, and cost-effective approach to enhance hot electron photodetection, with promising prospects for future imaging systems.     

All-In-One Detection,Removal and Recovery of Hg2+ in Industrial Wastewater with Plasmonic Schottky Heterostructures

The effective governance of Hg²⁺ in environmental wastewater is of profound significance to deal with the global pollution issues. However, the present methodologies usually only focused on a single function of either detection or removal, which encounters severe secondary pollution and cumbersome operation cost, while the integration of Hg²⁺ detection, removal, and recovery in one process is barely realized. In this study, an All-In-One photoelectrochemical system is built combining the detection, removal, and recovery of Hg²⁺ pollutant in a single process, by ingeniously developing a fundamental principle, namely alloying-induced plasmonic quenching mechanism in Schottky heterostructures. Briefly, the high-efficiency removal and recovery of Hg²⁺ in wastewater is realized via the favorable alloying of Hg in Ag nanoparticles that well-dispersed on the free-standing WO₃ nanoplate networks. The formation of Ag–Hg alloy future leads to a remarkable plasmonic quenching effect of the Ag nanoparticles, which is used to modulate the photoelectrochemical singles to realize the high-precision detection. Through this ingenious design, an ultralow Hg²⁺ detection limit of 0.296 nm is achieved with a broad detection range up to 12.5 µm , and meanwhile realize a removal/recovery rate of 100% in single Hg²⁺ solution and 97 ± 2% in industrial wastewater with multiple contamination ions. The detection and removal/recovery performance parameters reported in the study are much better as compared to the recently reported single function detection or removal/recovery systems. This work opens a fresh avenue in tackling the problem of heavy metal pollution using plasmonic Schottky heterostructure based All-In-One systems.     

Camouflaged Hybrid Cancer Cell-Platelet Fusion Membrane Nanovesicles Deliver Therapeutic MicroRNAs to Presensitize Triple-Negative Breast Cancer to Doxorubicin

Camouflaged cell-membrane-based nanoparticles have gained increasing attention owing to their improved biocompatibility and immunomodulatory properties. Using nanoparticles prepared from the membranes of specific cell types or fusions derived from different cells membranes, their functional performance could be improved in several aspects. Here, cell membranes extracted from breast cancer cells and platelets are used to fabricate a hybrid-membrane vesicle (cancer cell-platelet-fusion-membrane vesicle, CPMV) loaded with therapeutic microRNAs (miRNAs) for the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). A clinically scalable microfluidic platform is presented for fusion of cell membranes. The reconstitution process during synthesis allows for efficient loading of miRNAs into CPMVs. Conditions for preparation of miRNA-loaded CPMVs are systematically optimized and their property of homing to source cells is demonstrated using in vitro experiments and therapeutic evaluation in vivo. In vitro, the CPMVs exhibit significant recognition of their source cells and avoided engulfment by macrophages. After systemic delivery in mice, CPMVs show a prolonged circulation time and site-specific accumulation at implanted TNBC-xenografts. The delivered antimiRNAs are sensitized TNBCs to doxorubicin, resulting in an improved therapeutic response and survival rate. This strategy has considerable potential for clinical translation to improve personalized therapy for breast cancer and other malignancies.     

Surface-Engineered Extracellular Vesicles with CDH17 Nanobodies to Efficiently Deliver Imaging Probes and Chemo-Photothermal Drugs for Gastric Cancer Theragnostic

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are widely used as natural nanoparticles to deliver various cargos for disease diagnosis and therapy. However, unmodified EVs cannot efficiently transport the cargos to desired sites due to non-specific uptake. Here, a delivery system is designed to display nanobodies against cadherin 17 (CDH17) on the surface of EVs isolated from HEK-293 cells and loaded with dye Indocyanine green (ICG) and/or anti-cancer drug dinitroazetidine derivative RRx-001, a blocker for CD47/ signal regulatory protein alpha (SIRPα) axis. CDH17 is a promising target for gastric cancer (GC) therapy. In this study, ICG loaded in the EVs engineered with CDH17 nanobodies can realize rapid tumor imaging in a CDH17-positive GC model and can produce significant anti-tumor photothermal therapeutic (PTT) effect after irradiation. Meanwhile, PTT effect can induce immunogenic cell death and macrophage polarization from M2 to M1 phenotype. The engineered EVs loaded with RRx-001 can significantly repress GC tumor growth. Finally, dual loading of ICG/RRx-001 in engineered EVs show maximal anti-tumor efficacy in both cancer cell and patient-derived GC models after only single injection. Collectively, CDH17 nanobody-functionalized EVs loaded with ICG and/or RRx-001 hold great promise to image and treat GC by combining fluorescent dye-induced PTT with chemotherapy.     

Detection of Glioma‐Derived Exosomes with the Biotinylated Antibody‐Functionalized Titanium Nitride Plasmonic Biosensor

Titanium nitride (TiN), as an excellent alternative plasmonic supporting material compared to gold and silver, exhibits tunable plasmonic properties in the visible and near‐infrared spectra. However, label‐free surface plasmon resonance biosensing with TiN is seldom reported due to lack of proper surface functionalization protocols. Herein, this study reports biotinylated antibody‐functionalized TiN (BAF‐TiN) for high‐performance label‐free biosensing applications. The BAF‐TiN biosensor can quantitatively detect exosomes of 30–200 nm extracellular vesicles, isolated from a human glioma cell line. The limit of detection for an exosomal membrane protein with the BAF‐TiN biosensor is found to be 4.29 × 10^?3µg mL^?1 for CD63, an exosome marker, and 2.75 × 10^?3µg mL^?1 for epidermal growth factor receptor variant‐III, a glioma specific mutant protein, respectively. In conclusion, combining the biocompatibility, high stability, and excellent label‐free sensing performance of TiN, the BAF‐TiN biosensor could have great potential for the detection of cancer biomarkers, including exosomal surface proteins.     

Hybrid Vesicular Drug Delivery Systems for Cancer Therapeutics

Nanoscale vesicles have provided a versatile platform for the transportation of various types of anticancer and diagnostic agents. Vesicular carriers comprised of liposomes, polymersomes, and peptide‐based vesicles have exhibited potential characteristics for nanomedicine developments. However, the represented systems and current therapeutic approaches to cancers are confronted with serious limitations that hinder their clinical translation. The aforementioned limitations could be minimized by implementing combinatorial hybrid systems. With this method, hybrid vesicular systems can integrate the advantages of several carriers into one structure thereby resulting in an increased therapeutic index and better clinical outcome. The current study has reviewed recently introduced types of hybrid vesicles made of polymer–lipids, polymer–peptides, and lipid–peptides, and its main focus is on multiple metallic‐based nanoparticles incorporated into vesicular carriers to provide theranostic platforms and to boost the efficient cytotoxic effects of the delivered agents.     

One-Step Electrochemical Fabrication of 3D Gold Nanotrees with Enhanced Broadband Plasmonic Excited Carriers for Photoelectrochemical Reactions

Plasmonic nanostructures that generate hot carriers and induce catalytic chemical transformations are ideal candidates for solar energy utilization. However, the existing nanostructures require multistep synthesis procedures and generate fewer hot carriers due to their narrow resonance region and limited hotspots, restricting their usage in plasmonic catalysis. Inspired by the light-harvesting behavior of the trees, the current work reports a one-step fabrication strategy via electrodeposition for direct anisotropic growth of the 3D gold nanotrees with tunable size, branches, and height. The as-synthesized nanostructures with broadband light absorption and plentiful hotspots can significantly foster hot carrier generation. The improved hot electron generation of 3D gold nanotrees is confirmed by in situ surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy  for the dimerization reaction of 4-nitrothiophenol. The energetic hot holes generated by the 3D gold nanotrees facilitate water oxidation and exhibit 18.6 times higher catalytic efficiency than Au film under 625 nm. Meanwhile, the photoelectrochemical catalysis of 3D gold nanotrees shows better performance compared with conventional Au nanospheres. This work opens up a promising avenue for fundamental studies of plasmonic catalysis via a wide variety of 3D gold nanotrees.     

Remote‐Loaded Platelet Vesicles for Disease‐Targeted Delivery of Therapeutics

The recent emergence of biomimetic nanotechnology has facilitated the development of next‐generation nanodelivery systems capable of enhanced biointerfacing. In particular, the direct use of natural cell membranes can enable multivalent targeting functionalities. Herein, this study reports on the remote loading of small molecule therapeutics into cholesterol‐enriched platelet membrane‐derived vesicles for disease‐targeted delivery. Using this approach, high loading yields for two model drugs, doxorubicin and vancomycin, are achieved. Leveraging the surface markers found on platelet membranes, the resultant nanoformulations demonstrate natural affinity toward both breast cancer cells and methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus. In vivo, this translates to improved disease targeting, increasing the potency of the encapsulated drug payloads compared with free drugs and the corresponding nontargeted nanoformulations. Overall, this work demonstrates that the remote loading of drugs into functional platelet membrane‐derived vesicles is a facile means of fabricating targeted nanoformulations, an approach that can be easily generalized to other cell types in the future.     

Novel Insights into Combating Cancer Chemotherapy Resistance Using a Plasmonic Nanocarrier: Enhancing Drug Sensitiveness and Accumulation Simultaneously with Localized Mild Photothermal Stimulus of Femtosecond Pulsed Laser

Chemotherapy resistance remains a large obstacle to successful clinical cancer therapy, mainly due to little accumulation and low sensitivity of drugs and the effective clinical strategy still lacks. Herein, a novel yet simple strategy to combat cancer drug resistance using the plasmonic feature‐based photothermal properties is reported. Rather than directly killing cancer cells using nanoparticle‐mediated hyperthermia, for the first time, localized plasmonic heating of gold nanorod at a mild laser power density can modulate the drug‐resistance related genes. This photothermal effect triggers higher expression of heat shock factor (HSF‐1) trimers and depresses the expression of P‐glycoprotein (Pgp) and mutant p53. In turn, both drug accumulation in the breast cancer resistant cells (MCF‐7/ADR) and their sensitiveness to drugs can be greatly enhanced. Considering the universality and feasibility of this strategy, it points out a new unique way to challenge drug resistance.     

早期乳腺肿瘤的超宽带微波成像

通过采用时域有限差分方法探讨了一种收发天线分离的早期乳腺癌超宽带微波成像检测方案.在收发共用的超宽带天线设计中要求天线的终端反射不超过-120dB,而采用收发天线分离方案则避免了这一苛刻要求.采用共焦成像算法给出的成像结果表明,该方案亦可探测直径10mm以下的早期乳腺肿瘤.     

应用于早期乳腺肿瘤探测的小型化超宽带天线

设计了两款可以应用于早期乳腺肿瘤超宽带微波检测技术的超宽带天线。两款天线均为平面单极天线,分别由叉形、三角形金属贴片和槽口金属接地板构成,采用微带线对其进行馈电。经过仿真优化,两款天线的-10 dB回波损耗频率覆盖范围分别为4～10 GHz和5～10 GHz,且在此带宽内具有良好的全向性。对叉形极子天线进行了实物测量,试验数据与仿真结果相吻合。两款天线体积小、结构简单、加工简便,能够较好地满足微波成像检测乳腺肿瘤技术中天线阵列的设计要求。