Self‐propelled micro‐ and nanomotors (MNMs) have shown great potential for applications in the biomedical field, such as active targeted delivery, detoxification, minimally invasive diagnostics, and nanosurgery, owing to their tiny size, autonomous motion, and navigation capacities. To enter the clinic, biomedical MNMs request the biodegradability of their manufacturing materials, the biocompatibility of chemical fuels or externally physical fields, the capability of overcoming various biological barriers (e.g., biofouling, blood flow, blood–brain barrier, cell membrane), and the in vivo visual positioning for autonomous navigation. Herein, the recent advances of synthetic MNMs in overcoming biological barriers and in vivo motion‐tracking imaging techniques are highlighted. The challenges and future research priorities are also addressed. With continued attention and innovation, it is believed that, in the future, biomedical MNMs will pave the way to improve the targeted drug delivery efficiency.

The delivery of probiotics to the microbiota is a promising method to prevent and treat diseases. However, oral probiotics will suffer from gastrointestinal insults, especially the pathological microenvironment of inflammatory diseases such as reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the exhausted mucus layer, which can limit their survival and colonization in the intestinal tract. Inspired by the fact that probiotics colonized and grew in the mucus layer under physiological conditions, we developed a strategy for a super probiotic (EcN@TA-Ca 2+ @Mucin) coated with tannic acid and mucin via layer-by-layer technology. We demonstrated that mucin endows probiotics with superior resistance to the harsh environment of the gastrointestinal tract and with strong adhesiveness to the intestine through its interaction with mucus, which enhanced colonization and growth of probiotics in the mucus layer without removing the coating. Moreover, EcN@TA-Ca 2+ @Mucin can distinctly down-regulate inflammation with ROS scavenging and reduce the side effects of bacterial translocation in inflammatory bowel diseases, increasing the abundance and diversity of the gut microflora. We envision that it is a powerful platform to improve the colonization of probiotics by regulating the pathological microenvironment, which is expected to provide an important perspective for applying the intestinal colonization of probiotics to treat a variety of diseases.

Micro/nanomotors (MNMs) are miniaturized devices capable of performing self-propelled motion and ondemand tasks, which have brought revolutionary renovations in nanomedicine, environmental remediation, biochemical sensing, etc. Numerous methods of either chemical synthesis or physical fabrications have been extensively investigated to prepare MNMs of various shapes and functions. However, MNMs with replaceable engines that can be flexibly assembled and disassembled, resembling that of a macroscopic machine, have not been achieved. Here, for the first time, we report a demonstration of control over the engine replacement of self-propelled nanomotors based on hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles (HMSNPs) via supramolecular machine-based host−guest assembly and disassembly between azobenzene (Azo) and β-cyclodextrin (β-CD). Nanomotors with different driving mechanisms can be rapidly constructed by selecting corresponding β-CD-modified nanoengines of urease, Pt, or Fe 3 O 4 , to assemble with the azobenzenemodified HMSNPs (HMSNPs-Azo). In virtue of photoresponsive cis/trans isomer conversion of azobenzene molecules, engine switching can be accomplished by remote light triggered host−guest assembly or disassembly between HMSNPs-Azo and β-CDmodified engines. Moreover, this method can quickly include multiple engines on the surface of the HMSNPs-Azo to prepare a hybrid MNM with enhanced motion capability. This strategy not only is cost-effective for the rapid and convenient preparation of nanomotors with different propulsion mechanism but also paves a new path to future multiple functionalization of MNMs for ondemand task assignment.

Traditionally, containers made from steel or other metals are not good for making tea, probably due to the fact that polyphenol components in tea can chelate with metal ions. A similar reason might stand behind the observations as reported herein. During the coating of well-defined metal-organic framework (MOF) crystalline particles with polydopamine (PDA) via pH-induced self-polymerization of dopamine, we found that MOF templates automatically etch off during the coating, giving rise to nonspherical PDA capsules that inherit the morphologies of the templates. Such self-etching of MOF templates is ascribed to the chelation of the metal nodes of the MOFs by the catechol moieties in the PDA layer. In addition, the self-etching of the zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) with a truncated cubic shape probably follows a crystalline facet-dependent fashion, resulting in intermediate yolk-shell structures with ZIF-8 cargos of various shapes inside a highly biocompatible PDA shell. Incubation of such intermediate hybrid particles with the cancerous HeLa cell line leads to pronounced cytotoxicity, which is tentatively connected with the cellular internalization of the ZIF@PDA nanoparticles because of the cell affinity of the PDA layer. Subsequently, the continuous release of Zn by the self-etching of the encapsulated ZIF-8 inside the cell increases intracellular Zn to a harmful level. Therefore, intracellular delivery of metal ions is probably realized, which might offer a novel way for cancer therapy.

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Multilayered reduced graphene oxide (rGO) was functionalized with amino groups by treatment with nitrogen plasma. Raman spectroscopy showed plasma treatment not to substantially alter the chemical structure of rGO and that a wide range of functional nitrogen groups is evenly incorporated into the carbon lattice. The amino-modified rGO was used to design an electrochemical biosensor in which a DNAzyme, substrate DNA and Pb(II) and Hg(II) binding DNA were immobilized on the amino-rGO placed on a gold electrode. The high concentration of amino groups and the rough surface of the rGO favor DNA immobilization. Heavy metal ions are bound to the surface via specific interaction between DNA and the two ions which are detected by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy at a potential of 0.2 V (vs. Ag/AgCl). The detection limits for Pb(II) and Hg(II) are as low as 7.8 and 5.4 pM, respectively, and the analytical ranges extend from 0.01 to 100 nM. The sensor is highly specific and stable and therefore represents a highly promising tool for use in environmental monitoring.

Rich post-buckling phenomena of spherical polymeric shells are revealed by controlled reversible buckling of polydopamine spherical microcapsules.

The current work investigates how the nanoscale conformal coating layers of non-chiral polymeric materials can influence the chiral nematic liquid crystal (CLC) behaviors of the rodlike cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), the bio-derived nanomaterials that have attracted significant attention. For this, we developed strategies to coat the CNC rods on the single-particle level with a homogeneous bioinspired polydopamine (PDA) layer, leading to well-defined core−shell CNC@PDA rods with various PDA coating thicknesses and excellent colloidal stability. Comprehensive investigation revealed that the CNC@ PDA hybrid nanorods in concentrated suspensions form well-defined nematic liquid crystal phases with clear phase separation behavior that depend on the rod concentrations and ionic strengths, typical of charged rods. Most intriguingly, the nematic LC phases formed by the CNC@PDA rods with the PDA coating thickness achieved herein are indeed the perfect CLC phases, which form following the classic pathway of nucleation and coalesce of chiral tactoids and have colorful chiral fingerprints standing out from the dark suspensions. The pitches of the CLC phase increase sharply with increasing PDA coating thicknesses and are significantly larger than those of the pristine CNCs. Such observations can be attributed to the blurring effects of the PDA coating on the intrinsic surface chiral features of CNC of whatever origins that drive the formation of the CLC phases, resulting in weakening chiral interactions between CNC@PDA rods. Besides benefiting the understanding of the long-sought origin of the CLC phases of the pristine CNC, the current work demonstrates the possibility of controlling the CLC phase behaviors of CNC by tuning the thickness of the coating materials and also serves as the first example of directly transferring the unique chirality of CNC to other non-chiral materials.