Themed collection Biomaterials Science Recent Review Articles, 2024

Wired electrodes for nervous system stimulation have inherent limitations. Electrostimulation using unwired bipolar electrodes offers a new paradigm to drive growth and repair of nervous tissue.  It also opens a wide field for innovation of electrode materials and protocols.

The use of nanoparticles for identifying and suppressing telomerase presents promising opportunities for anticancer strategies, particularly in relation to circadian regulation.

Biological liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS) provides novel insights for the assembly of biomaterials with tailored structure and intrinsic functionality.

The applications of renal-targeting natural polymers and polymer-delivered natural drugs for the treatment of lethal acute kidney injury are summarized.

Bone defects are often difficult to treat due to their complexity and specificity, and therefore pose a serious threat to human life and health.

Bacterial infection-related diseases continue to pose a significant challenge to global human health. Single-atom nanozymes (SAzymes) have shown promissing potential as novel antibacterial agents for the future.

Keloid is a type of scar formed by the overexpression of extracellular matrix substances from fibroblasts following inflammation after trauma.

This review highlights the advances of functional extracellular nanovesicles in CRISPR delivery, including their cellular entry pathways, functionalization techniques, and the challenges and strategies pivotal for clinical translation.

Protein–polymer bioconjugation, immobilization, and encapsulation exhibit a unique array of properties and can be tuned to produce desired effects for specific biomaterial applications.

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) constitute a class of highly functional porous materials composed of lightweight elements interconnected by covalent bonds, characterized by structural order, high crystallinity, and large specific surface area.

In this review, four types of cell membrane functionalities and applications are summarized, which elucidate their working principles, outline the current approaches for engineering cell membranes, and discuss their potential clinical applications.

A chemicobiology toolbox for type I and type II photodynamic therapy.

Brain-computer interface (BCI) allows the human or animal brain to directly interact with the external environment through the neural interfaces, thus playing the role of monitoring, protecting, improving/restoring, enhancing, and replacing the human brain or body.

The current efforts to ameliorate the coupling of osteogenesis and angiogenesis were summarized comprehensively and explored in depth from the optimization strategies of scaffolds to the employment tricks for bioactive substances and cells.

Polylysine, renowned for its outstanding antibacterial efficacy, has shown significant promise in the biomedical field. This review presents various preparation methods and recent advances in polylysine-containing hydrogels to promote wound healing.

4D hydrogels mimic anisotropic tissue composition due to non-uniform distribution of internal stresses within them. Herein, we discuss the strategies used to fabricate programmable hydrogels in response to environmental cues for biomedical applications.

This review discussed photothermal therapy from basic information to its circumstances and potential in protate cancer treatment.

Due to their distinctive physical and chemical properties as well as their biological functionalities, multifunctional antibacterial hydrogels possess significant advantages in the treatment of chronic wounds.

Alkali and alkaline earth elements play a crucial role in the structure, processing, and properties of bioactive glasses, widely used in medical applications since their inception in 1969.

In recent years, the design and synthesis of Janus hydrogels have advanced significantly, overcoming single-performance material limitations and broadening applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

The targeted delivery of pharmacologically active molecules, metabolites, and growth factors to the brain parenchyma has become one of the major challenges following the onset of neurodegeneration and pathological conditions.

This article reviews the latest progress in the mechanism and treatment of different gases and related gas releasing materials in diabetic wound repair.

Non-viral vector-based CRISPR-Cas-mediated immunoengineering in tumor cells and immune cells for cancer immunotherapy.

Developing safe and effective delivery strategies for localizing messenger RNA (mRNA) payloads to the spleen is an important goal in the field of genetic medicine.

GI transporter/receptor-mediated nanosized drug delivery systems could improve oral absorption and further target organs or diseases for effective therapeutic outcomes.

Nanozymes, a distinctive class of nanomaterials with enzyme-like activity and kinetics akin to enzyme-catalysed reactions, present several advantages over natural enzymes, including cost-effectiveness, heightened stability, and adjustable activity.

Unactivated platelets could be constructed via external modification, internal loading, genetic engineering and cell conjugation, and applied as targeted drug delivery carriers for cardiovascular disease, cancer and pathogen infection therapy.

In this review, we provide a comprehensive summary of the nanoparticle-based CpG delivery systems developed to improve the efficacy of CpG-mediated immune responses.

Shape memory polymers (SMPs), which initiate shape transformation in response to environmental stimuli, have attracted significant attention in both academic research and technological innovation.

Drugs for Alzheimer's disease (AD) fail to exhibit efficacy in clinical trials for a number of reasons, a major one being blood–brain barrier (BBB) permeability.

Recent progress in nanomaterials for bacteria-related tumor therapy in terms of chemotherapy, immunotherapy and synergistic therapy is summarized in this review in order to provide some insights into this emerging and rapidly growing research area.

Organic fluorescent materials (OFMs) play a crucial role in the development of biosensors, enabling the extraction of biochemical information within cells and organisms, extending to the human body.

Biomaterials enhance B cell immunity by modulating the delivery approach, crosslinking B cell receptors, and promoting T cell help, while inhibitory co-receptor engagement via biomaterial design suppresses B cell function.

This review introduces different methods used to generate microgels and the microgel-based bioink for bioprinting. Besides, the further tendency of microgel development in future is predicted.

Electrospun nanofibers with fascinating properties provide a versatile platform for postoperative tissue anti-adhesion.

Existing treatments could be sensitized by targeting the ferroptosis pathway in prostate cancer.

In this review, we have summarized the common self-assembled mechanism of NSMs-based SANDDSs. Meanwhile, the potential applications for cancer treatment and future development prospects are also prospected.

To meet the precise diagnosis and treatment as well as reduce systemic toxicity and side effects, self-assembled peptides are applied to the targeting therapy, including targeting theranostics, nanocarrier delivery, immunotherapy, and combination therapy.

To date, organ transplantation remains an effective method for treating end-stage diseases of various organs.

Blood–brain barrier-crossing dendrimers for glioma imaging diagnostics, chemotherapy, gene therapy, or imaging-guided therapy have been concisely reviewed with perspectives briefly discussed.

This review introduces gallic-acid hydrogels, covering their crosslinking mechanisms, physicochemical properties, synthesis methods, and biomedical applications, aiming to provide inspiration for the design of multifunctional polyphenol hydrogels.

We summarize the advancements of renal-clearable organic nanoprobes for optical imaging and remote urinalysis. The versatile design strategies are discussed along with their challenges and perspectives for the development of next-generation renal-clearable nanoprobes.

This review provides a critical overview of implantable guidance conduits for nerve regeneration and the challenges in improving their performance in limiting gap lesions to establish them as an alternative to autografts in clinical practice.

This review summarizes composition and preparation methodologies of injectable hydrogels and highlights the delivery mechanisms of drugs for tumor therapy, along with discussion on the optimal therapeutic efficiency of drugs and provides perspective on challenges and solutions in applications.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are vesicles with lipid bilayer structures shed from the plasma membrane of cells.

Organic–inorganic composite hydrogels, with its polymeric networks interacting with inorganic fillers via different modes, provide a versatile platform for regenerative medicine.

Representative antimicrobial delivery platforms and strategies for the eradication of intracellular bacterial pathogens.

This review elaborates on piezocatalytic MOF systems for tumour therapy. It mainly discusses the fundamental principles, construction strategies, recent advances, and the challenges and prospects of MOF-based piezocatalytic therapy.

Islet transplantation holds significant promise as a curative approach for type 1 diabetes (T1D).

Application of hydrogel-based DDSs for the treatment of IBD.

Illustration shows the various sources of cell membrane along with different NPs used for the production of cell membrane-coated nanoparticles and their applications.

The antibacterials strategy of MoS₂ base materials.

Amine-epoxide ring-opening polymerization was carried out to construct a hydroxyl-rich branched polycation and based on a one-pot strategy for the flexible introduction and multifunctional modification of responsive molecules.

This review summarizes the design, screening and application of covalent drugs and expects to provide a new reference for cancer treatment.

Microneedle technology advances healthcare with drug release, biosensing and theranostic systems. While promising, issues including production require multidisciplinary efforts to bridge the gap between research and individualized healthcare devices.

This paper summarizes the application of biomedical nanomaterials including hydrogels for the ferroptosis driven tumours treatment, and the application of various nanomaterials in ferroptosis was categorizes and reviewed.

Craniomaxillofacial bone serves a variety of functions.

Four kinds of implantable bioelectrodes are reviewed, and their background, development, and complications caused by FBR after implantation are introduced. Strategies to resist FBR are reviewed. We analyze trends in the development of implantable bioelectrodes and outline future research directions.

This review offers a reliable platform for comprehending microfluidics, covering key concepts, historical advancements, technological evolution, materials, successful implementations, applications, market trends, and future prospects.

Composites based on titanium and hydroxyapatite can be facilely prepared by microwave coating or sintering for dental implantation.

The synergistic integration of natural and synthetic materials, capitalizing on their respective advantages and mitigating their weaknesses, represents a rational strategy for the development of an ideal injectable smart stimuli-responsive hydrogel.

Schematic representation of cell-derived biomimetic nanovesicles for cancer phototherapy.