Biomarker‐Responsive Nanosystems for Chronic Disease Theranostics

Abstract

Chronic diseases claim millions of lives every year, and it is of great significance to explore and develop advanced drugs to improve the cure rate of chronic diseases. Nanotheranostics are innovative strategies that enable the integration of diagnostic and therapeutic properties into a single nanosystem. Despite great success in nanotheranostics, their applications of nanotheranostics in nanomedicine are still in their infancy. This is because each disease has its corresponding characteristic pathological microenvironment, which motivates the development of endogenous biomarker-responsive nanosystems to meet the requirements of diagnosis and treatment. Herein, recent progress is presented in biomarker-responsive nanosystems and their biomedical applications. First, biomarker-responsive nanosystems are classified into eight subsections according to the type of chronic diseases, including tumors, cardiovascular diseases, neurological diseases, Wilson's diseases, chronic liver diseases, chronic kidney diseases, diabetes mellitus, and rheumatoid arthritis. In the following, a variety of intriguing applications of biomarkers-responsive nanosystems are briefly elaborated, such as biosensing, diagnosis, therapy, combined theranostics, and early evaluation of therapy effect, etc. Finally, the challenges and future directions from research to clinical translation of these responsive nanosystems are also presented.

Graphene Transistors for In Vitro Detection of Health Biomarkers

“…Proteins consisting of one or more amino acid chains are unique components in all living organisms and are of vital importance in physiological systems. [9,107] This section summarizes the latest advances in GFET protein sensors for healthcare applications such as monitoring enzymatic activity, [108] proteinto-protein interactions, [109] early disease diagnosis, [110] and epidemic prevention and control, [50,111,112] and so on. [7,113] Research progress has been made in aptamer-conjugated strategies for sensitively detecting proteins at different concentrations.…”

Cell death mediated by nanotechnology via the cuproptosis pathway: A novel horizon for cancer therapy

“…Since then, the cellular regulatory mechanisms and signaling pathways involving cuproptosis have been investigated extensively, which propelled the movement toward cuproptosis inducers represented by copper‐based nanomaterials for the eradication of malignant tumors. As a novel model of cell death regulation, cuproptosis not only addresses the problem of resistance introduced by apoptosis but also circumvents the inflammatory risk of necrosis 53,54 . In this minireview, we first comprehensively expound the regulatory mechanism of cuproptosis in the introduction section and then introduce the application of the cuproptosis mechanism in the field of nanomedicine, which may provide new insights into designing copper‐based nanomaterials for cancer therapy.…”

“…As a novel model of cell death regulation, cuproptosis not only addresses the problem of resistance introduced by apoptosis but also circumvents the inflammatory risk of necrosis. 53,54 In this minireview, we first comprehensively expound the regulatory mechanism of cuproptosis in the introduction section and then introduce the application of the cuproptosis mechanism in the field of nanomedicine, which may provide new insights into designing copperbased nanomaterials for cancer therapy. Despite the rapid development of studies on cuproptosis-based cancer therapy, challenges remain to be addressed, along with tremendous opportunities.…”

Nanomaterials Responsive to Endogenous Biomarkers for Cardiovascular Disease Theranostics

“…[277,278] Endogenous biomarkers, including small molecules, enzymes, cell receptors, and cytokines, are involved in the pathological process of CVD and can be exploited as stimuli to trigger in situ assembly/ disassembly of nanomaterials or as targets to guide the enrichment of nanomaterials in the lesion area. [279][280][281] These endogenous biomarker-responsive nanomaterials not only nicely circumvent the issues with CVD theranostics, such as off-target effects, short blood circulation, low bioavailability, poor solubility, and nonspecific distribution but also improve the targetability of drug delivery, accuracy of detection, imaging diagnostic capability and therapeutic outcome. In this review, we systematically and comprehensively summarized recent studies of various nanomaterials responsive to endogenous biomarkers (e.g., pH, ROS, lipids, enzymes, macrophage receptors, VSMC receptors, platelet receptors, inflammation and OPN) and their application in CVD theranostics, including diagnosis (e.g., FL Integration of diagnosis and treatment Real-time monitoring of treatment effect Difficulty in nanocarrier synthesis; preclinical [273,276] imaging, PA imaging, MR imaging, US imaging, multimodal imaging and POCT) and treatment (e.g., gene therapy, drug therapy, US-based therapy, optical therapy, synergistic therapy and integration of diagnosis and treatment).…”