Themed collection Journal of Materials Chemistry B HOT Papers

DNA nanostructures are highly tunable and responsive materials for diagnostic and healthcare-related applications, but their intracellular fate remains largely unknown.

Various nanomaterials can mimic the activities of nucleases for hydrolytic and oxidative DNA cleavage on different sites allowing interesting biomedical and bioanalytical applications.

Triggering specific chemical reactions in the disease microenvironment can produce species for disease treatment that have high theranostic performance and low side effects on healthy cells/tissues.

This review presents recently developed supramolecular ensembles modified by near-infrared dyes. We discussed the construction of these near-infrared dyes-based ensembles and their biological application.

A timely and comprehensive account of electroactive biomaterials promoting bone regeneration is provided by reviewing their physicochemical and biological properties.

With the integrated evaluation of the scaffold profile in the living systems, the decellularized animal, plant, and fungal scaffolds will become essential instruments for safe and controllable biomedical applications.

Dynamic covalent polymers have revealed strong potential in gene delivery, thanks to their versatile self-assembly, adaptive and responsive behaviors.

The design of inorganic scaffolds able to instruct the immune system, eliciting adequate feedback by tuning specific material properties, has become an emerging field of research.

The development and progress of antimicrobial polypeptides and saccharide–polypeptide conjugates in regards to their structural design, biological functions and antimicrobial mechanism.

We review the range of biomolecules used across dental biomaterials to spur the design and implementation of bioinspired multifunctional materials.

Near infrared (NIR)-excitable and NIR-emitting probes have fuelled advances in biomedical applications owing to their power in enabling deep tissue imaging, offering high image contrast and reducing phototoxicity.

This review highlights recent advances in bio-orthogonal and dynamic hydrogels crosslinked by irreversible click chemistry, enzymatic reactions, and covalent-adaptable network.

In this review article, we present the state-of-the-art approaches and recent advancements in the engineering of scaffold-free cardiac microtissues for myocardial repair.

Flexible electrochemical biosensors are studied hugely because of tremendous advantages including the fast response, high sensitivity, inherent miniaturization, convenient operation, and portability which are suitable for wearable biosensors.

Herein, recent advances in the synthesis of the water-soluble polypeptides with ordered secondary structures via ring-opening polymerization of NCA/NTA and their biological applications are described.

This work discusses prominent advantages and advances in single-nanoparticle characterization and synthesis, and gives an outlook on particle-based biomedical diagnosis.

Gas-sensing applications commonly use nanomaterials (NMs) because of their unique physicochemical properties, including a high surface-to-volume ratio, enormous number of active sites, controllable morphology, and potential for miniaturisation.

This article provides an extensive review of paper-based sensors that utilize functional nucleic acids, particularly DNA aptamers and DNAzymes, as recognition elements.

A broad range of investigation methods and frameworks are used to better study the elasticity of various micro/nanoparticles (MNPs) with different properties and to explore the effect of such properties on their interactions with biological species.

This review is a comprehensive overview and analysis of the most important advances in the field of substituted hydroxyapatite coatings.

This review presents a broad overview of recent reports on the biocompatibility and biodegradability of two-dimensional materials and highlights recent progress in their biodegradable and bioabsorbable sensors for diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

In this review, the role of conjugated polymer nanoparticles (CPNs) in emerging bioimaging techniques is described.

The type and location of residues in the designed novel peptides that bind Zn²⁺ ions determine the properties of the fibrils.

DNA nanostructures as platforms to monitor the inherent conformational changes of aptamers upon analyte binding, with single-molecule resolution and real-time capability.

A glucose sensor based on a conductive Ni-MOF as an electrocatalyst exhibits a fast response time, low detection limit, and high sensitivity, and it can also be applied for the detection of glucose in blood serum samples.

Inspired from toughening mechanism of bone tissues, hydrogels, toughened by low crsytalline hydroxyapatite as sacrificial bonds, were created.

MRI with hyperpolarized ¹²⁹Xe can achieve low-concentration detection.

An enzyme-free, single-step and rapid signal amplification DNA circuit was developed by integrating target-directed entropy-driven catalysis and hybridization chain reaction for fluorescence analysis of nucleic acids and small molecules.

Semiconducting compounds with high photostability and excellent photothermal ability are potential candidates for phototheranostics.

Photodynamic antimicrobial therapy (PDAT) has received enormous attention due to its excellent spatiotemporal accuracy, non-invasiveness, and anti-multidrug resistance properties compared with chemotherapy.

A skin-matched soft strain/pressure sensor fabricated by fully physically crosslinked conductive PDA–rGO/PVA hydrogel is reported for sensitive healthcare monitoring and human-machine interaction.

A facile approach for the highly luminescent and biocompatible CsPbBr₃@SiO₂ core–shell PNCs was developed. The dual biological roles of these PNCs are demonstrated, offering new directions to the stable PNCs for a variety of biomedical applications.

A multifunction hydrogel system was designed to ablate residual tumors in 4T1 tumor-bearing mice models after surgery via photothermal therapy.

IR780 as a commercially available dye with near-infrared emission has been extensively applied in fluorescent probes and bioimaging.

The selective fluorescent probe BCy-HOCl monitoring the HOCl in acute lung injury cell and mouse models.

MMP2-initiated size-changeable melanin nanoparticles significantly increase the T₁-weighted MRI and PA signals in vivo due to enhanced tumor accumulations.

A biocompatible nanocomposite of mesoporous silica-coated gold nanorods is fabricated for synergistic tumor therapy.

Developing new strategies to enhance drug accumulation in the tumor and therapeutic efficacy is of great importance in the field of tumor therapy.

Herein, the synthesis of an amino-acid-based di-block copolymer (di-BCP) in-between an L-glutamic acid-5-benzyl ester and L-aspartic acid-4-benzyl ester [(L-GluA-5-BE)-b-(L-AspA-4-BE)] has been reported.

Impaired skin regeneration in chronic wounds like in diabetes corresponds to high oxidative stress, poor angiogenesis and insufficient collagen hyperplasia.

Taking advantages of the crystallization by attachment of amorphous calcium carbonate nanoparticles, micrometer-sized GFP-E. coli can be efficiently incorporated into vaterite crystals, the artificial composites exhibit stable fluorescence more than six months.

A porous hydrogel of SF with nanocrystalline calcium phosphate ceramics for bone regeneration was prepared through consecutive dephosphorylation actions.

Combining crack mechanism in GNWs with the stretchability of PDMS, a contact lens sensor exhibits excellent sensitivity to intraocular pressure.

The nanopoers of honeycomb scaffolds affect mechanical strength, osteoclastogenesis, and osteogenesis. When the nanopore volume was 0.15 cm³ g⁻¹, steady replacement of honeycomb scaffolds with new bone was achieved.

Amino acid oxidase, the fundamental building blocks of proteins, is delivered via catalytic nanocapsules and combined with chemodynamic therapy for tumor treatment.

Excellent imaging performance and good biocompatibility of contrast agents are considered as prerequisites for accurate tumor diagnosis.

Development of bioresponsive theranostic nanoparticles to enhance cancer diagnostics and control cancer metastasis.

A peculiar clock-regulated design of FeMn-LDHs (FMH) with specific physiochemical attributes has been developed and used for highly sensitive detection of cysteine (CySH) and dopamine (DA).

Nanoparticles with active-targeting, enzyme and ROS sensitive features were fabricated to load AFT for molecular targeted- and photodynamic combinational therapy.

The sacrificial template-ligand exchange integration fabrication and chirality dependent autophagy effects of the near-infrared optically active Cu_2−xS nanocrystals.

The spectra of platelet activation molecular markers were used to study the changes of platelet activation by degradation products.

A fluorophore–protein complex for the visualization of mitochondria and the mouse intestine was developed. The complex formation of a naphthalene-based dipolar dye and serum albumin was identified and its imaging applications were investigated.

We have developed a novel near-infrared Pt-acetylide conjugated polymer CP3 with highly efficient photoconversion behaviors for synergistic cancer phototherapy.

Near-infrared photothermal liposomal nanoantagonists with photo-controlled cargo release were developed for amplified cancer photodynamic therapy through inhibiting intracellular glutathione biosynthesis.

2D PEGylated graphene oxide showed stealth-but-immune-activating capacity on macrophages, along with specific intraperitoneal immunological response in vivo.

It is demonstrated that polyphosphate, as a component in wound healing mats together with Zn²⁺, is essential for growth and migration of skin keratinocytes.

Bioprinting is an emerging powerful fabrication method, which enables the rapid assembly of 3D bioconstructs with dispensing cell-laden bioinks in pre-designed locations.

A photoactivatable polyprodrug nanoparticle system (PPNP_siRNA) was developed for efficient light-controlled codelivery of Pt(IV) and siRNA for synergistic cancer therapy.

A simple method was developed by using core–shell UCNPs as seeds and heterogeneously growing VS₂ nanoshell directly on the surface. The final nanostructures with uniform and small sizes afford dual-mode imaging and photothermal therapy in vitro.

Nanocarriers have been an important strategy for enhancing the combination therapy of chemotherapy and photodynamic therapy (PDT) (Chem-PDT).

A CTC-based digital assay to detect T790M mutation non-invasively, indicating peripheral arterial blood to be a more abundant CTC source.

Hexametaphosphate prevents aggregation and dissolves kidney stones an order of magnitude more effectively than the current therapy, citrate.

Amphiphilic phytoglycogen nanoparticles are used as building blocks for engineering multifunctional hybrid films with catalytic and sensing properties.

Zwitterionic small molecule based fluorophores for efficient and selective imaging of bacterial endospores.

Lyophilization affects the conformation of PEI chains modified on the surface of silica nanoparticles and enhances the plasmid DNA transfection performance.

Molecular imaging of extracellular vesicles in vitro via Raman metabolic labelling.

3D connected porous LGPU scaffolds with adjustable degradation and a strong anti-inflammatory effect were prepared for neural tissue repair.

The phosphatase-like activity of ZrO₂ nanoparticles is reported, which has found applications in intracellular imaging.

We report a PL biosensor using cysteamine functionalized ZnO nanoparticles for the detection of quorum sensing signals (N-acyl homoserine lactones).

A tannic acid–Fe³⁺ networks-functionalized polydopamine-based composite nanoparticle was constructed and demonstrated the promising application for T₁/T₂-weighted MR imaging-guided synergistic treatment of PTT and reductant/photothermal-enhanced CDT.