Shining light on chiral inorganic nanomaterials for biological issues

Abstract

The rapid development of chiral inorganic nanostructures has greatly expanded from intrinsically chiral nanoparticles to more sophisticated assemblies made by organics, metals, semiconductors, and their hybrids. Among them, lots of studies concerning on hybrid complex of chiral molecules with achiral nanoparticles (NPs) and superstructures with chiral configurations were accordingly conducted due to the great advances such as highly enhanced biocompatibility with low cytotoxicity and enhanced penetration and retention capability, programmable surface functionality with engineerable building blocks, and more importantly tunable chirality in a controlled manner, leading to revolutionary designs of new biomaterials for synergistic cancer therapy, control of enantiomeric enzymatic reactions, integration of metabolism and pathology via bio-to nano or structural chirality. Herein, in this review our objective is to emphasize current research state and clinical applications of chiral nanomaterials in biological systems with special attentions to chiral metal- or semiconductor-based nanostructures in terms of the basic synthesis, related circular dichroism effects at optical frequencies, mechanisms of induced optical chirality and their performances in biomedical applications such as phototherapy, bio-imaging, neurodegenerative diseases, gene editing, cellular activity and sensing of biomarkers so as to provide insights into this fascinating field for peer researchers.

Biological applications of chiral inorganic nanomaterials

“…13,14 Furthermore, due to the chiral signals and tunable properties, the CNs may show greatly stereoselectivity or regionselectivity properties that are much unique in the biomedical fields. 15 Besides, the CNs showed unique chiral optical activities that are much different with the achiral counterparts. The chiral optical activities including circular dichroism (CD), circular polarized light (CPL) emission, nonlinear optics, and optoelectronics.…”

“…14 Significant progresses in CNs have been made; nonetheless, the biological applications still face many challenges. In the next 5-10 years, much attention should be paid for the synthesis and design of CNs and understanding of chiral matterbiointerface interactions 15 ; in addition, the diverse bioapplications can be further explored to broaden the applications of chiral nanomaterials in biology. Herein, we think the following points should also be much interesting and will arouse more and more attention.…”

“…As for CNs, the functional surface ligands may greatly affect its solubility, surface charges, and self‐assembly, and more importantly, the interactions between NPs with the biosystem, such as the cells and bacteria, will be greatly dependent on the surface ligands 13,14 . Furthermore, due to the chiral signals and tunable properties, the CNs may show greatly stereoselectivity or region‐selectivity properties that are much unique in the biomedical fields 15 . Besides, the CNs showed unique chiral optical activities that are much different with the achiral counterparts.…”

A versatile messenger for chirality communication: asymmetric silica framework

“…Therefore, the chirality of synthesized molecules or materials is a property of concern, especially when they are associated with living organisms or chiral light. In this context, chiral inorganic materials have received ever-increasing attention over the past two decades, despite the fact that inorganic materials are often considered as being achiral [3][4][5][6] .…”

Chiral Hybrid Copper(I) Iodide Single Crystals Enable Highly Selective Ultraviolet-Pumped Circularly Polarized Luminescence Applications

“…Chiral hybrid materials have attracted extensive research interest in the fields of biological science, material science, pharmaceutical science, spintronics, and optoelectronics. − Chirality, as a fundamental property of materials, refers to the asymmetry of a molecule to overlap its mirror structure. The organic–inorganic hybrid chiral materials were obtained by integrating the chiral organic molecule into the inorganic framework to form helical alignments.…”