The Application of Nanomaterials in Diagnosis and Treatment for Malignant Primary Brain Tumors

Abstract

Malignant primary brain tumors have a very high morbidity and mortality. Even though enormous advances have been made in primary brain tumor management, in the case of malignant primary brain tumors, current diagnostic strategies cannot identify exact in¯ltrating margins, surgery alone cannot achieve total mass resection, and adjuvant therapies cannot improve survivals. Therefore, there is an urgent need to explore novel strategies to diagnose and treat such in¯ltrating brain tumors. Nanomaterials, particularly zero-dimensional and one-dimensional platforms, can carry various compounds such as contrast agents, anticancer drugs and genes into brain tumor cells speci¯cally. Thus, contrast agent-based nanomaterials can selectively present in¯ltrating tumor outlines, while anticancer agent-based nanomaterials can speci¯cally kill malignant tumor cells. In addition, dual-targeting nanomaterials, multifunctional nanocarriers, theranostic nanovehicles as well as convection-enhanced delivery technology hold promise to increase drug accumulation in tumor tissues, which could largely improve anticancer e±cacy. In this review, we will mainly focus on the application of nanomaterials in preoperative diagnosis, intraoperative diagnosis and adjuvant treatment for malignant primary brain tumors.

N-ACETYLGALACTOSAMINE BIOSENSOR BASED ON POLYDIACETYLENE NANOVESICLES: AN INDIRECTLY COLORIMETRIC RECOGNITION OF GALACTOSE-DEFICIENT IgA1

“…13,14 The invasive procedure of the renal biopsy is the disadvantage of the detection. To avoid the invasive procedure, particularly in the individuals with mild disease, the noninvasive tests to support the diagnosis of IgAN using a GalNAcspeci¯c lectin were developed.…”

Bright Aggregation‐Induced‐Emission Dots for Targeted Synergetic NIR‐II Fluorescence and NIR‐I Photoacoustic Imaging of Orthotopic Brain Tumors

“…Nowadays, brain tumors inside the complex central nervous system remain one of the most challenging cancers to diagnose . This urges the emergence of novel brain‐imaging modalities and the corresponding contrast agents, which work together to offer outcomes with good sensitivity and specificity, deep penetration, high spatial and temporal resolution .…”

“…Nowadays, brain tumors inside the complex central nervous system remain one of the most challenging cancers to diagnose . This urges the emergence of novel brain‐imaging modalities and the corresponding contrast agents, which work together to offer outcomes with good sensitivity and specificity, deep penetration, high spatial and temporal resolution . Conventional brain‐imaging techniques like positron emission tomography (PET), computed tomography (CT), ultrasound imaging (US), single‐photon emission computed tomography (SPET), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have unlimited penetration, but show certain drawbacks, such as being hazardous to both patients and operators with the ionization energy source (for CT, PET, and SPECT), poor‐soft tissue contrast (for CT), limited spatial resolution (for US, MRI, and PET), and long acquisition time (for MRI and CT) .…”

“…As compared to conventional NIR fluorescence imaging in the first NIR window (NIR‐I) (700–900 nm), fluorescence imaging in the second NIR window (NIR‐II) (1000–1700 nm) exhibits salient advantages of deeper penetration and higher spatiotemporal resolution, owing to further reduced photon scattering, absorption, and tissue autofluorescence in biological tissues . Another strategy to overcome the drawbacks of conventional imaging modalities is to use multimodal imaging integrated with two or more modalities, which takes advantages of respective strength and compensates for inherent shortcomings of each modality, leading to increased imaging accuracy . Therefore, NIR‐II fluorescence and multimodal imaging hold great promise in efficient brain‐tumor diagnosis.…”

“…Owing to the hydrophobic nature of organic fluorophores, usually they are loaded into polymer matrices to realize water dispersibility, biostability in vivo, tumor targeting capability, and the ultimate imaging efficacy . Nevertheless, most conventional fluorophores show weakened or annihilated fluorescence inside NPs as a result of aggregation‐caused quenching (ACQ) .…”