Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine: A Promising Avenue for Lung Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy

Lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, with a very poor overall five-year survival rate. The intrinsic limitations associated with the conventional diagnosis and therapeutic strategies used for lung cancer have motivated the development of nanotechnology and nanomedicine approaches, in order to improve early diagnosis rate and develop more effective and safer therapeutic options for lung cancer. Cancer nanomedicines aim to individualize drug delivery, diagnosis, and therapy by tailoring them to each patient’s unique physiology and pathological features—on both the genomic and proteomic levels—and have attracted widespread attention in this field. Despite the successful application of nanomedicine techniques in lung cancer research, the clinical translation of nanomedicine approaches remains challenging due to the limited understanding of the interactions that occur between nanotechnology and biology, and the challenges posed by the toxicology, pharmacology, immunology, and large-scale manufacturing of nanoparticles. In this review, we highlight the progress and opportunities associated with nanomedicine use for lung cancer treatment and discuss the prospects of this field, together with the challenges associated with clinical translation.     

Nanomanufacturing and characterization modalities for bio-nano-informatics systems

In the next decade or two, the feature size of microelectronic devices will continue to decrease and is eventually expected to reach fabrication and material limits. With the field of microelectronics rapidly approaching the end of its roadmap, the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) was created for the purpose of creating new technologies and to maintain the momentum of continuous scientific and technological progress. Primarily, the fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology aim to synthesize, characterize, apply, and control macro functional molecules and consist of three areas. First, the area of bio-nanotechnologies concerns that of biological molecules such as DNA, the molecule that serves as the blueprint of all living organisms. Harnessing the intrinsic functionality of these nano-sized biological molecules, i.e., DNA/RNA and proteins, will yield enormous potential for a wide array of applications (biomedical, energy, sensing, etc.) Second, diminishing electronic device feature sizes has spurred the development of new techniques for nanoelectronics and has emerged as a critical area of research. Third, these macro functional molecules possess rich potential for various new nanomaterials that have applications in bio-nano and nanoelectronics industries. Given the range of devices and applications that may be generated and addressed, respectively, through the fruition of these areas, development of novel and advanced core characterization and nanomanufacturing technologies will serve as a requisite strategy toward the realization of the potential underlying nanotechnological development. As such, this review will address how these novel technologies will be used to achieve a true coalescence of nanoscience and nanotechnology. This, in turn, will ultimately benefit the human condition by using the building blocks and fundamental findings of nanoscience to develop systems based on the fusion of biology, nanotechnology, and informatics, with embedded intelligence and emergent behavior.     

Using Functional Nanomaterials to Target and Regulate the Tumor Microenvironment: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Applications

Malignant tumors remain a major health burden throughout the world and effective therapeutic strategies are urgently needed. Cancer nanotechnology, as an integrated platform, has the potential to dramatically improve cancer diagnosis, imaging, and therapy, while reducing the toxicity associated with the current approaches. Tumor microenvironment is an ensemble performance of various stromal cells and extracellular matrix. The recent progress in understanding the critical roles and the underlying mechanisms of the tumor microenvironment on tumor progression has resulted in emerging diagnostic and therapeutic nanomaterials designed and engineered specifically targeting the microenvironment components. Meanwhile, the bio‐physicochemical differences between tumor and normal tissues have recently been exploited to achieve specific tumor‐targeting for cancer diagnosis and treatment. Here, the major players in the tumor microenvironment and their biochemical properties, which can be utilized for the design of multifunctional nanomaterials with the potential to target and regulate this niche, are summarized. The recent progress in engineering intelligent and versatile nanomaterials for targeting and regulating the tumor microenvironment is emphasized. Although further investigations are required to develop robust methods for more specific tumor‐targeting and well‐controlled nanomaterials, the applications of tumor microenvironment regulation‐based nanotechnology for safer and more effective anticancer nanomedicines have been proven successful and will eventually revolutionize the current landscape of cancer therapy.     

Realizing Cancer Precision Medicine by Integrating Systems Biology and Nanomaterial Engineering

Many clinical trials for cancer precision medicine have yielded unsatisfactory results due to challenges such as drug resistance and low efficacy. Drug resistance is often caused by the complex compensatory regulation within the biomolecular network in a cancer cell. Recently, systems biological studies have modeled and simulated such complex networks to unravel the hidden mechanisms of drug resistance and identify promising new drug targets or combinatorial or sequential treatments for overcoming resistance to anticancer drugs. However, many of the identified targets or treatments present major difficulties for drug development and clinical application. Nanocarriers represent a path forward for developing therapies with these “undruggable” targets or those that require precise combinatorial or sequential application, for which conventional drug delivery mechanisms are unsuitable. Conversely, a challenge in nanomedicine has been low efficacy due to heterogeneity of cancers in patients. This problem can also be resolved through systems biological approaches by identifying personalized targets for individual patients or promoting the drug responses. Therefore, integration of systems biology and nanomaterial engineering will enable the clinical application of cancer precision medicine to overcome both drug resistance of conventional treatments and low efficacy of nanomedicine due to patient heterogeneity.     

A collective and abridged lexical query for delineation of nanotechnology publications

In order to monitor articles/patents in nanotechnology, there is little agreement on a universal lexical query or even an explicit definition of nanotechnology. Here in the light of a proposed definition, a set of case studies has been conducted to remove keywords which are not exclusive to nanotechnology. This resulted in a collective and abridged lexical query (CALQ) for nanotechnology delineation. Through bibliometric quantification of already-proposed as well as the novel keywords, it was shown that all keywords included in CALQ have considerable exclusive retrieval and precision, while the removed keywords do not satisfy either of these numerical thresholds. This approach may also be applied for the future updating of CALQ.     

Tracking the evolution of new and emerging S&;T via statement-linkages: Vision assessment in molecular machines

The past 10 years has seen an explosion of interest for the area of science and technology labelled “nanotechnology.” Although at an early stage, nanotechnology is providing a space for the creation of new alliances and the forging of new ties in many actor arenas, initiated based on promises and high expectations of the fruits that could be harvested from development and investment into nanotechnology. Those trying to characterise the dynamics of emerging ties and networks within this field are faced with a number of complexities which are characteristic of the nanotechnology umbrella term, which covers many technologies, various mixes of disciplines and actors, and ongoing debates about definitions of fields and terminology. In this paper we explore an approach for capturing dynamics of emergence of a particular area of nanotechnology by investigating visions of possible futures in relation to molecular mechanical systems (molecular machines). The focus of this text is to outline an approach used to map and analyse visions in an emerging field by taking as the unit of analysis linkages made in statements in texts, and the agglomeration of linkages around certain nodes. Taking the linkage, rather than node, allows one to probe deeper into the dynamics of emergence at early stages when definitions and meanings of certain words/nodes are in flux and patterns of their use change dramatically over short periods of time. As part of a larger project on single and macromolecular machines we explore the dynamics of visions in the field of molecular machines with the eventual aim to elucidate the shaping strength of visions within nanotechnology.     

Applications of Bacteria Decorated with Synthetic DNA Constructs

The advent of DNA nanotechnology has revolutionized the way DNA has been perceived. Rather than considering it as the genetic material alone, DNA has emerged as a versatile synthetic scaffold that can be used to create a variety of molecular architectures. Modifying such self-assembled structures with bio-molecular recognition elements has further expanded the scope of DNA nanotechnology, opening up avenues for using synthetic DNA assemblies to sense or regulate biological molecules. Recent advancements in this field have lead to the creation of DNA structures that can be used to modify bacterial cell surfaces and endow the bacteria with new properties. This mini-review focuses on the ways by which synthetic modification of bacterial cell surfaces with DNA constructs can expand the natural functions of bacteria, enabling their potential use in various fields such as material engineering, bio-sensing, and therapy. The challenges and prospects for future advancements in this field are also discussed.     

Self-assembled DNA nanostructures for distance-dependent multivalent ligand-protein binding

An important goal of nanotechnology is to assemble multiple molecules while controlling the spacing between them. Of particular interest is the phenomenon of multivalency, which is characterized by simultaneous binding of multiple ligands on one biological entity to multiple receptors on another. Various approaches have been developed to engineer multivalency by linking multiple ligands together. However, the effects of well-controlled inter-ligand distances on multivalency are less well understood. Recent progress in self-assembling DNA nanostructures with spatial and sequence addressability has made deterministic positioning of different molecular species possible. Here we show that distance-dependent multivalent binding effects can be systematically investigated by incorporating multiple-affinity ligands into DNA nanostructures with precise nanometre spatial control. Using atomic force microscopy, we demonstrate direct visualization of high-affinity bivalent ligands being used as pincers to capture and display protein molecules on a nanoarray. These results illustrate the potential of using designer DNA nanoscaffolds to engineer more complex and interactive biomolecular networks.     

纳米纤维素基材料在柔性电子器件中的应用

目的 由于纳米纤维素基材料良好的柔韧性、热力学性能和高透明度,近年来在柔性电子产品中引起越来越多的关注。通过综述该领域的研究进展,将有助于研究人员更高效地开展研究。方法 综述3类纳米纤维素的制备方法及将纳米纤维素基材料应用在柔性电子产品中的研究进展。分别阐述纳米纤维素基材料应用于器件柔性衬底及绝缘材料的研究实例,并讨论纳米纤维素在各种应用方向中的优势以及存在的问题,最后对材料的未来应用前景进行展望。结论 纳米纤维素是天然纤维素与纳米技术结合的产物,可主要划分为纤维素纳米纤丝、纤维素纳米晶以及细菌纤维素3类。近年来,纳米纤维素基材料作为电子器件柔性衬底、绝缘材料等研究均有许多成果问世。虽然纳米纤维素基电子器件的开发还主要停留在实验室阶段,但是与传统的石油化工产品相比,纳米纤维素具有原材料丰富、环保可降解等优点。对纳米纤维素基新型材料的开发利用,有助于解决人类社会中日益严重的电子垃圾问题。     

Protein‐Based Artificial Nanosystems in Cancer Therapy

Proteins, like actors, play different roles in specific applications. In the past decade, significant achievements have been made in protein‐engineered biomedicine for cancer therapy. Certain proteins such as human serum albumin, working as carriers for drug/photosensitizer delivery, have entered clinical use due to their long half‐life, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and inherent nonimmunogenicity. Proteins with catalytic abilities are promising as adjuvant agents for other therapeutic modalities or as anticancer drugs themselves. These catalytic proteins are usually defined as enzymes with high biological activity and substrate specificity. However, clinical applications of these kinds of proteins remain rare due to protease‐induced denaturation and weak cellular permeability. Based on the characteristics of different proteins, tailor‐made protein‐based nanosystems could make up for their individual deficiencies. Therefore, elaborately designed protein‐based nanosystems, where proteins serve as drug carriers, adjuvant agents, or therapeutic drugs to make full use of their intrinsic advantages in cancer therapy, are reviewed. Up‐to‐date progress on research in the field of protein‐based nanomedicine is provided.     

纳米孔传感技术应用于肿瘤早期诊断的研究进展

近几十年来,尽管研究人员一直在努力开发新的诊断和治疗技术,癌症仍然是世界上发病率和死亡率最高的疾病之一。其中关键点是在肿瘤发生的早期进行诊断。现有的肿瘤早期诊断方法有很多缺点,比如对病患肿瘤组织的侵入。因此,与肿瘤相关的无创诊断的研究已经越来越多并已经取得进展。研究发现,蛋白、DNA或者RNA等生物大分子都有可能成为潜在的肿瘤标志物,已有的检测方法也存在许多缺点。纳米孔因具有独特的物理和电学性质,对生物分子的检测有快速、无需标记和扩增等优点,已被广泛使用和证明。在不远的将来,应用纳米孔对肿瘤标志物进行检测,进行肿瘤诊断并监控治疗过程值得期待。主要介绍了纳米孔传感技术应用于肿瘤早期诊断中肿瘤标志物检测的研究进展。     

In Vivo Bio‐Safety Evaluations and Diagnostic/Therapeutic Applications of Chemically Designed Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles

The remarkable progress of nanotechnology and its application in biomedicine have greatly expanded the ranges and types of biomaterials from traditional organic material‐based nanoparticles (NPs) to inorganic biomaterials or organic/inorganic hybrid nanocomposites due to the unprecedented advantages of the engineered inorganic material‐based NPs. Colloidal mesoporous silica NPs (MSNs), one of the most representative and well‐established inorganic materials, have been promoted into biology and medicine, and shifted from extensive in vitro research towards preliminary in vivo assays in small‐animal disease models. In this comprehensive review, the recent progresses in chemical design and engineering of MSNs‐based biomaterials for in vivo biomedical applications has been detailed and overviewed. Due to the intrinsic structural characteristics of elaborately designed MSNs such as large surface area, high pore volume and easy chemical functionalization, they have been extensively investigated for therapeutic, diagnostic and theranostic (concurrent diagnosis and therapy) purposes, especially in oncology. Systematic in vivo bio‐safety evaluations of MSNs have revealed the evidences that the in vivo bio‐behaviors of MSNs are strongly related to their preparation prodecures, particle sizes, geometries, surface chemistries, dosing parameters and even administration routes. In vivo pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics further demonstrated the effectiveness of MSNs as the passively and/or actively targeted drug delivery systems (DDSs) for cancer chemotherapy. Especially, the advance of nano‐synthetic chemistry enables the production of composite MSNs for advanced in vivo therapeutic purposes such as gene delivery, stimuli‐responsive drug release, photothermal therapy, photodynamic therapy, ultrasound therapy, or anti‐bacteria in tissue engineering, or as the contrast agents for biological and diagnostic imaging. Additionally, the critical issues and potential challenges related to the chemical design/synthesis of MSNs‐based “magic bullet” by advanced nano‐synthetic chemistry and in vivo evaluation have been discussed to highlight the issues scientists face in promoting the translation of MSNs‐based DDSs into clinical trials.     

Controlled deposition of gold nanowires on semiconducting and nonconducting surfaces

One of the pressing problems in advancing nanoelectronic applications and systems is to develop a simple means of freely connecting at a nanometric level electronic components under ambient conditions without the need for vacuum or electron or ion beam operational steps. Such environments may have detrimental effects on the molecular or biomolecular constituents of molecular electronic circuits. Although there has been defined progress in connecting structures that are of nanometric dimension, new methods in this area of nanotechnology with general applicability add to the arsenal of tools for addressing this standing problem. This paper addresses freely placing under ambient conditions, with fountain pen nanolithography, a 120 nm dimension line of gold nanocolloids deposited with precise registration in a 100 nm gap between two 250 nm wide conducting electrodes patterned by electron beam lithography.     

Carbon nanomaterials for advanced energy conversion and storage

It is estimated that the world will need to double its energy supply by 2050. Nanotechnology has opened up new frontiers in materials science and engineering to meet this challenge by creating new materials, particularly carbon nanomaterials, for efficient energy conversion and storage. Comparing to conventional energy materials, carbon nanomaterials possess unique size-/surface-dependent (e.g., morphological, electrical, optical, and mechanical) properties useful for enhancing the energy-conversion and storage performances. During the past 25 years or so, therefore, considerable efforts have been made to utilize the unique properties of carbon nanomaterials, including fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and graphene, as energy materials, and tremendous progress has been achieved in developing high-performance energy conversion (e.g., solar cells and fuel cells) and storage (e.g., supercapacitors and batteries) devices. This article reviews progress in the research and development of carbon nanomaterials during the past twenty years or so for advanced energy conversion and storage, along with some discussions on challenges and perspectives in this exciting field.     

细菌纤维素纳米复合物的研究进展

细菌纤维素是一种新型的生物材料,具有很多优良的性能,在伤口敷料、人造血管、人工皮肤及组织工程领域有着广阔的应用前景.近年来,国外研究者采用纳米复合技术对细菌纤维素进行了修饰,以赋予细菌纤维素新的性能.综合介绍了目前国外关于细菌纤维素纳米复合物的研究进展及其应用情况.     

Nanopatterns with biological functions

Both curiosity and a desire for efficiency have advanced our ability to manipulate materials with great precision on the micrometer and, more recently, on the nanometer scale. Certainly, the semiconductor and integrated circuit industry has put the pressure on scientist and engineers to develop better and faster nanofabrication techniques. Furthermore, our curiosity as to how life works, and how it can be improved from a medical perspective, stands to gain a great deal from advances in nanotechnology. Novel nanofabrication techniques are opening up the possibilities for mimicking the inherently nano-world of the cell, i.e., the nanotopographies of the extracellular matrix (ECM) and the nanochemistry presented on both the cell membrane and the ECM. In addition, biosensing applications that rely on fabrication of high-density, precision arrays, e.g., DNA or gene chips and protein arrays, will gain significantly in efficiency and, thus, in usefulness once it becomes possible to fabricate heterogeneous nanoarrays. Clearly, continued advances in nanotechnology are desired and required for advances in biotechnology. In this review, we describe the leading techniques for generating nanopatterns with biological function including parallel techniques such as extreme ultraviolet interference lithography (EUV-IL), soft-lithographic techniques (e.g., replica molding (RM) and microcontact printing (muCP)), nanoimprint lithography (NIL), nanosphere lithography (NSL) (e.g., colloid lithography or colloidal block-copolymer micelle lithography) and the nanostencil technique, in addition to direct-writing techniques including e-beam lithography (EBL), focused ion-beam lithography (FIBL) and dip-pen nanolithography (DPN). Details on how the patterns are generated, how biological function is imparted to the nanopatterns, and examples of how these surfaces can and are being used for biological applications will be presented. This review further illustrates the rapid pace by which advances are being made in the field of nanobiotechnology, owing to an increasing number of research endeavors, for an ever increasing number of applications.     

Nanomaterial-based amplified transduction of biomolecular interactions

This article reviews progress in the development of nanomaterials for amplified biosensing and discusses different nanomaterial-based bioamplification strategies. Signal amplification has attracted considerable attention for ultrasensitive detection of disease markers and biothreat agents. The emergence of nanotechnology is opening new horizons for highly sensitive bioaffinity and biocatalytic assays and for novel biosensor protocols that employ electronic, optical, or microgravimetric signal transduction. Nucleic acids and antibodies functionalized with metal or semiconductor nanoparticles have been employed as amplifying tags for the detection of DNA and proteins. The coupling of different nanomaterial-based amplification platforms and amplification processes dramatically enhances the intensity of the analytical signal and leads to ultrasensitive bioassays. The successful realization of the new nanoparticle-based signal amplification strategies requires proper attention to nonspecific adsorption issues. The implications of such nanoscale materials on amplified biodetection protocols and on the development of modern biosensors are discussed.     

Nanostructured bioceramics for maxillofacial applications

Biomaterials science and technology have been expanding tremendously the recent years. The results of this evolution are obvious in maxillofacial applications especially with the contemporary development of Nanotechnology. Among biomaterials, bioceramics possess a specific field due to various interactions with the biological tissues. The combination of bioceramics and nanotechnology has resulted in enhanced skeletal interactions in maxillofacial applications. Nanotechnology secures better mechanical properties and more effective biological interactions with jaws. The main production methods for the synthesis of nanostructured materials include plasma arcing, chemical vapour deposition, sol–gel and precipitation. The bioceramics in Dentistry comprise inert, bioactive, resorbable and composite systems. The purpose of the present article is to describe the available nanotechnology methods and how these could be addressed to synthesise maxillofacial bioceramics with advanced properties for better biological applications. Additionally, it describes specific clinical applications in maxillofacial surgery of these biomaterials—either by themselves or in combination with others—that can be promising candidates for bone tissue engineering. Such applications include replacement of lost teeth, filling of jaws defects or reconstruction of mandible and temporomandibular joint.     

Integration of environmental impact estimation in system architecture and supplier identification

With the emergence of environmental legislations in many countries, the importance placed upon environmental protection has been raised to a new level, especially for industrial activities. Considering environmental issues as early as possible, starting with the design stage, is expected in order to better manage and diminish adverse environmental impact. Commensurate progress has been made in method/tool development for use in environmental impact estimation; however, very few of these methods allow integrating this estimation early in the design process—a critical point of deciding for potential product concepts and suppliers. In this paper, we propose a tool that integrates environmental impact estimation into architecture and supplier identification, in order to conjointly consider requirements satisfaction as well as uncertainty due to new module and new supplier integration. This tool is developed to support original equipment manufacturer decision making in the context of an extended enterprise. A case study is presented to illustrate a plausible implementation.