Nanomedicine articles within Nature Communications

Featured

• Article
  03 April 2014 | Open Access

  Porphyrin–phospholipid liposomes permeabilized by near-infrared light

  The delivery of therapeutics using an external trigger is an attractive route for the improvement of targeted disease treatment. Here, the authors have discovered a porphyrin–phospholipid liposome for light-controlled membrane permeabilization and use the system to deliver an anticancer drug in vivo.

  • Kevin A. Carter
  • , Shuai Shao
  •  & Jonathan F. Lovell

• Article | 11 March 2014

  ATP-triggered anticancer drug delivery

  Nanoparticles can deliver drugs to tumours but improvements in selectively targeting tumour cells are required. Here, Mo et al. develop nanocarriers that take advantage of high ATP levels in tumour cells and show that these nanoparticles encapsulating the chemotherapeutic doxorubicin can inhibit tumour growth in mice.

  • Ran Mo
  • , Tianyue Jiang
  •  & Zhen Gu

• Article | 04 March 2014

  Environment-responsive nanophores for therapy and treatment monitoring via molecular MRI quenching

  Iron oxide nanoparticles are used for iron supplementation and as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging. Here, Kaittanis et al. show that these nanoparticles can also be used as pH-sensitive drug delivery vehicles, and that drug loading and release can be monitored in vivoby magnetic resonance imaging.

  • Charalambos Kaittanis
  • , Travis M. Shaffer
  •  & Jan Grimm

• Article | 20 January 2014

  A statin-loaded reconstituted high-density lipoprotein nanoparticle inhibits atherosclerotic plaque inflammation

  Inflammatory processes in atherosclerotic lesions promote disease progression and plaque rupture. Here the authors load the drug statin into nanoparticles made of recombinant high-density lipoprotein and show that these accumulate in atherosclerotic plaques and reduce plaque inflammation in mice.

  • Raphaël Duivenvoorden
  • , Jun Tang
  •  & Willem J. M. Mulder

• Article | 20 January 2014

  Non-invasive mapping of deep-tissue lymph nodes in live animals using a multimodal PET/MRI nanoparticle

  The imaging of tumour-draining lymph nodes is important for cancer diagnosis and therapy. Here, Thorek et al. report a nanoparticle that allows for the combined imaging of deep-tissue lymph nodes by positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging in cancer-bearing mice.

  • Daniel L. J. Thorek
  • , David Ulmert
  •  & Jan Grimm

• Article | 31 October 2013

  Tumour-on-a-chip provides an optical window into nanoparticle tissue transport

  The interaction of nanoparticles with target tissues is important in the design of nanoparticle-based therapies. Here, the authors develop a microfluidic chip to assess the interaction of nanoparticles with tumour tissues and demonstrate its capacity to predict in vivonanoparticle behaviour.

  • Alexandre Albanese
  • , Alan K. Lam
  •  & Warren C.W. Chan

• Article | 12 August 2013

  In vivo time-gated fluorescence imaging with biodegradable luminescent porous silicon nanoparticles

  Tissue autofluorescence can lead to considerable noise in fluorescence imaging of biological tissues. Here Gu et al.demonstrate that the use of photoluminescent silicon nanoparticles with long emission lifetimes enable a late time-gated imaging technique where autofluorescence effects are avoided.

  • Luo Gu
  • , David J. Hall
  •  & Michael J. Sailor

• Article | 01 August 2013

  Octapod iron oxide nanoparticles as high-performance T₂ contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging

  Spherical superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles are potentially attractive MRI contrast agents, but their low transverse relaxivity has hindered their application. Here, the authors report size and shape control of octapod iron oxide nanoparticles with extremely high transverse relaxivity.

  • Zhenghuan Zhao
  • , Zijian Zhou
  •  & Jinhao Gao

• Article | 12 June 2013

  Solution-based circuits enable rapid and multiplexed pathogen detection

  Rapid, highly multiplexed molecular detection platforms may enable more specific and effective disease diagnosis. Here, a solution-based circuit is reported that enables the analysis of samples for panels of pathogens and antibiotic-resistance profiles at clinically relevant levels in less than 2 min.

  • Brian Lam
  • , Jagotamoy Das
  •  & Shana O. Kelley

• Article | 21 May 2013

  Delivery of therapeutic agents by nanoparticles made of grapefruit-derived lipids

  Nanoparticles released from living cells can be used as drug delivery vehicles, but scaling up their production is challenging. Here, Wang and colleagues create nanoparticles from natural lipids contained in grapefruit juice that can encapsulate various types of therapeutics and deliver them to cells in vitro and in vivo.

  • Qilong Wang
  • , Xiaoying Zhuang
  •  & Huang-Ge Zhang

• Article | 13 November 2012

  Self-luminescing BRET-FRET near-infrared dots for in vivo lymph-node mapping and tumour imaging

  Fluorescence imaging in vivo is hampered by autofluorescence and the scattering and absorption of short-wavelength light. To address these problems, Xiong et al. produce self-luminescing nanoparticles that enable in vivonear-infrared imaging without external light excitation.

  • Liqin Xiong
  • , Adam J. Shuhendler
  •  & Jianghong Rao

• Article | 25 September 2012

  Insights into the biomedical effects of carboxylated single-wall carbon nanotubes on telomerase and telomeres

  Single-walled carbon nanotubes can selectively stabilize telomeric i-motif DNA and have been suggested as a treatment for cancer. Here, carbon nanotubes are found to inhibit telomerase activity by stabilizing i-motif DNA, leading to telomere uncapping and altered telomere function in cancer cells.

  • Yong Chen
  • , Konggang Qu
  •  & Xiaogang Qu