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To date, while various diagnostic approaches for pathogen detection have been proposed, most are too expensive, lengthy or limited in specificity for clinical use. Nanoparticle systems with unique material properties, however, circumvent these problems and offer improved accuracy over current methods. Herein, we present novel magneto-DNA probes capable of rapid and specific profiling of pathogens directly in clinical samples. A nanoparticle hybridisation assay, involving ubiquitous and specific probes that target bacterial 16S rRNAs, was designed to detect amplified target DNAs using a miniaturised nuclear magnetic resonance device. Ultimately, the magneto-DNA platform allowed both universal and specific detection of various clinically relevant bacterial species, with sensitivity down to single bacteria. Furthermore, the assay was robust and rapid, simultaneously diagnosing a panel of 13 bacterial species in clinical specimens within 2 hours. The generic platform described could be used to rapidly identify and phenotype pathogens for a variety of applications.

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A variety of organic and inorganic nanomaterials with dimensions below several hundred nanometers are recently emerging as promising tools for cancer therapeutic and diagnostic applications due to their unique characteristics of passive tumor targeting. A wide range of nanomedicine platforms such as polymeric micelles, liposomes, dendrimers, and polymeric nanoparticles have been extensively explored for targeted delivery of anti-cancer agents, because they can accumulate in the solid tumor site via leaky tumor vascular structures, thereby selectively delivering therapeutic payloads into the desired tumor tissue. In recent years, nanoscale delivery vehicles for small interfering RNA (siRNA) have been also developed as effective therapeutic approaches to treat cancer. Furthermore, rationally designed multi-functional surface modification of these nanomaterials with cancer targeting moieties, protective polymers, and imaging agents can lead to fabrication versatile theragnostic nanosystems that allow simultaneous cancer therapy and diagnosis. This review highlights the current state and future prospects of diverse biomedical nanomaterials for cancer therapy and imaging.

Carboxyl content and amylose leaching of gamma-irradiated corn starch increased and swelling factor decreased with increasing radiation dose. The apparent amylose content decreased gradually from 28.7% for native starch to 20.9% for 50 kGy irradiated starch. The proportion of short amylopectin branch chains (DP 6 to 12) increased, while the proportion of longer branch chains (DP > or = 37) decreased with increasing radiation dose. The relative crystallinity and the degree of granule surface order decreased from 28.5% and 0.631 in native starch to 26.9% and 0.605 in 50 kGy irradiated starch, respectively. Pasting viscosity and gelatinization temperatures decreased with an increase in radiation dose. At a high dose (50 kGy), melting of amylose-lipid complex in DSC thermogram was not observed. The rapidly digestible starch (RDS) content slightly decreased up to 10 kGy but increased at 50 kGy. The resistant starch (RS) content slightly decreased at 2 kGy and then increased up to 50 kGy. The slowly digestible starch (SDS) content showed the opposite trend to RS content. Slower irradiation dose rate reduced carboxyl content, swelling factor, and amylose leaching. The apparent amylose content and amylopectin chain length distribution were not significantly affected by dose rate of gamma irradiation. However, the relative crystallinity and gelatinization enthalpy increased with slower dose rate. Slower dose rate decreased RDS and SDS contents, and increased RS content.

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