The
emergence of the new coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) was first
seen in December 2019, which has spread rapidly and become a global
pandemic. The number of cases of COVID-19 and its associated mortality
have raised serious concerns worldwide. Early diagnosis of viral infection
undoubtedly allows rapid intervention, disease management, and substantial
control of the rapid spread of the disease. Currently, the standard
approach for COVID-19 diagnosis globally is the RT-qPCR test; however,
the limited access to kits and associated reagents, the need for specialized
lab equipment, and the need for highly skilled personnel has led to
a detection slowdown. Recently, the development of clustered regularly
interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-based diagnostic systems
has reshaped molecular diagnosis. The benefits of the CRISPR system
such as speed, precision, specificity, strength, efficiency, and versatility
have inspired researchers to develop CRISPR-based diagnostic and therapeutic
methods. With the global COVID-19 outbreak, different groups have
begun to design and develop diagnostic and therapeutic programs based
on the efficient CRISPR system. CRISPR-based COVID-19 diagnostic systems
have advantages such as a high detection speed (i.e., 30 min from
raw sample to reach a result), high sensitivity and precision, portability,
and no need for specialized laboratory equipment. Here, we review
contemporary studies on the detection of COVID-19 based on the CRISPR
system.
An optimal radiosensitizer with improved tumor retention has an important effect on tumor radiation therapy. Herein, gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) and drug‐containing, mPEG‐conjugated CUR (mPEG‐CUR), self‐assembled NPs (mPEG‐CUR@Au) are developed and evaluated as a drug carrier and radiosensitizer in a breast cancer mice model. As a result, cancer therapy efficacy is improved significantly by applying all‐in‐one NPs to achieve synchronous chemoradiotherapy, as evidenced by studies evaluating cell viability, proliferation, and ROS production. In vivo anticancer experiments show that the mPEG‐CUR@Au system improves the radiation sensitivity of 4T1 mammary carcinoma and completely abrogates breast cancer.
Synchronous chemotherapy and radiotherapy, termed chemoradiation therapy, is now an important standard regime for synergistic cancer treatment. For such treatment, nanoparticles can serve as improved carriers of chemotherapeutics into tumors and as better radiosensitizers for localized radiotherapy. Herein, we designed a Schottky-type theranostic heterostructure, Bi
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–Au, with deep level defects (DLDs) in Bi
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as a nano-radiosensitizer and CT imaging contrast agent which can generate reactive free radicals to initiate DNA damage within tumor cells under X-ray irradiation. Methotrexate (MTX) was conjugated onto the Bi
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–Au nanoparticles as a chemotherapeutic agent showing enzymatic stimuli-responsive release behavior. The designed hybrid system also contained curcumin (CUR), which cannot only serve as a nutritional supplement for chemotherapy, but also can play an important role in the radioprotection of normal cells. Impressively, this combined one-dose chemoradiation therapeutic injection of co-drug loaded bimetallic multifunctional theranostic nanoparticles with a one-time clinical X-ray irradiation, completely eradicated tumors in mice after approximately 20 days after irradiation showing extremely effective anticancer efficacy which should be further studied for numerous anti-cancer applications.
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