Nanomedicine articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The promise of stem cell therapy for treating central nervous system disease is limited by low stem cell transplantation survival rates and poorly controlled cell fate. Here, the authors develop a biodegradable nanoscaffold for spinal cord injury that enhances transplantation and differentiation of neural stem cells and delivers drugs.

    • Letao Yang
    • , Sy-Tsong Dean Chueng
    •  & Ki-Bum Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Retention of drugs loaded into liposomes is a major challenge to effective targeted drug delivery. Here, the authors report on the modification of drugs with a glycosidic pH sensitive switch to improve encapsulation and retention of drugs and demonstrate application in an in vivo cancer model.

    • Pierre-Alain Burnouf
    • , Yu-Lin Leu
    •  & Steve R. Roffler

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    Targeted delivery strategies based on nanocarriers have immense potential to change cancer care but current strategies have been shown only limited translation in the clinic. Here, the authors survey the challenge, progress and opportunities towards targeted delivery of cancer therapeutics.

    • Daniel Rosenblum
    • , Nitin Joshi
    •  & Dan Peer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    If decorated with the right surface modifications, nanoparticles can function as Trojan horses, transporting cell death-facilitating compounds to tumor cells. Here, the authors prepare a particle with four enzyme-like activities and show that ferritin can direct nanoparticles to tumor cells.

    • Kelong Fan
    • , Juqun Xi
    •  & Lizeng Gao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multifunctional nanomedicine platforms are highly promising for anticancer therapy. Here, the authors design polyrotaxane-based theranostic nanoparticles that combine targeted drug delivery with photothermal behaviour to exhibit potent anti-tumour effects in vivo.

    • Guocan Yu
    • , Zhen Yang
    •  & Xiaoyuan Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Effective therapeutic platforms should combine serum stability, selective targeting, and controlled drug release. Here, the authors self-assemble an aptamer-based nanoscaffold that contains separate cell-targeting and photo-regulated drug-carrying domains, realizing multiple therapeutic functionalities in a single construct.

    • Deepak K. Prusty
    • , Volker Adam
    •  & Michael Famulok

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Long-acting antimalarials could provide improved prophylaxis and treatment options in the field. Here, Bakshi et al. develop a long-acting injectable atovaquone nanomedicine that prevents malaria infection prophylactically for up to 4 weeks in mice with no evidence for generation of resistant parasites.

    • Rahul P. Bakshi
    • , Lee M. Tatham
    •  & Theresa A. Shapiro

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanoparticle elasticity is thought to play an important role in drug delivery, but is little studied. Here, the authors use nanolipogels with tunable moduli to study the effect of particle elasticity on in vitro cellular uptake and in vivo tumor uptake, finding that stiffer particles are not as easily internalized.

    • Peng Guo
    • , Daxing Liu
    •  & Marsha A. Moses

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The clinical potential of peptide therapeutic agents can only be fully realised once their physicochemical and pharmacokinetic properties are precisely controlled. Here the authors show a reversible peptide self-assembly strategy to control and prolong the bioactivity of a native peptide hormone in vivo.

    • Myriam M. Ouberai
    • , Ana L. Gomes Dos Santos
    •  & Mark E. Welland

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There are only a few examples of nanocarriers that can transport bioactive substances across the blood-brain barrier. Here the authors show that by rapid glycaemic increase the accumulation of a glucosylated nanocarrier in the brain can be controlled.

    • Y. Anraku
    • , H. Kuwahara
    •  & K. Kataoka

  • Article
    | Open Access

    MnO2 nanostructures are promising TME-responsive theranostic agents in cancer. Here, the authors develop a nano-platform based on hollow H-MnO2 nanoshells able to modulate the tissue microenvironment, release a drug and inhibit tumor growth alone or in combination with check-point blockade therapy.

    • Guangbao Yang
    • , Ligeng Xu
    •  & Zhuang Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the interaction between nanoparticles and biomolecules is crucial for improving current drug-delivery systems. Here, the authors shed light on the essential role of the surface and other physicochemical properties of a library of nanoparticles on their in vivo pharmacokinetics.

    • Nicolas Bertrand
    • , Philippe Grenier
    •  & Omid C. Farokhzad

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Conjugated polymer nanoparticles have been applied for biological fluorescence imaging in cell culture and in small animals, but cannot readily be excreted through the renal system. Here the authors show fully conjugated polymer nanoparticles based on imidazole units that can be bio-degraded by activated macrophages.

    • Tatjana Repenko
    • , Anne Rix
    •  & Alexander J. C. Kuehne

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Palladium (Pd) is a well-known catalyst in organic chemistry but its use in nanomedicine is limited. Here, the authors design a Pd nanoparticle that triggers the activation of an antitumour prodrugin vivo, which shows efficacy and improves toxicity compared to traditional solvent- and nanoparticle-drug formulations.

    • Miles A. Miller
    • , Bjorn Askevold
    •  & Ralph Weissleder

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Liquid metals are excellent candidate materials for biomedicine, owing to their intriguing optical properties and chemical stability. Here, the authors design multifunctional theranostic liquid metal nanocapsules that, upon irradiation, generate heat and reactive oxygen species and change shape to release drugs.

    • Svetlana A. Chechetka
    • , Yue Yu
    •  & Eijiro Miyako

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The signal detected in magnetic resonance imaging comes from the relaxation of proton nuclear magnetization. Here, Zhouet al. introduce magnetic field inhomogeneity as a parameter to design iron oxide nanoparticle clusters to enhance the relaxation rate of nearby protons, thereby increasing image contrast.

    • Zijian Zhou
    • , Rui Tian
    •  & Xiaoyuan Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Water can function as a sustainable reactor for the synthesis of size-controlled, functional nanoparticles. Here, the authors introduce an underwater Leidenfrost synthesis that reproduces the dynamic chemistry of the deep ocean, in which anticancer therapeutic ZnO2nanoclusters form in an overheated zone and migrate to colder water to continue growth.

    • Mady Elbahri
    • , Ramzy Abdelaziz
    •  & Moheb Abdelaziz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Drug delivery in brain tumours is still a significant clinical concern. In this study, the authors develop a biomimetic lipoprotein nanoparticle for the efficient delivery of ATF5 siRNA inRas-activated brain cancer cells, where the nanoparticle is internalized by macropinocytosis in a Ras-dependent manner.

    • Jia-Lin Huang
    • , Gan Jiang
    •  & Xiao-Ling Gao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fluid shear stress plays a critical role in receptor-mediated signalling and has been shown to sensitize cancer cells to apoptosis. Here, Mitchellet al. introduce polymer micro- and nanoparticles tethered to tumour cells to amplify fluid shear stress effects, and find that they can enhance immune cytokine-mediated apoptosis of tumour cells in vitro and in vivo.

    • Michael J. Mitchell
    • , Jamie Webster
    •  & Robert Langer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanomedicine efficacy in a clinical setting depends on the pharmacological properties of the therapeutic nanoparticles. Here, the authors exemplify an accelerated translational strategy from small-scale screening to clinical scale-up for an orally-dosed aqueous paediatric HIV nanomedicine.

    • Marco Giardiello
    • , Neill J. Liptrott
    •  & Andrew Owen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Blockade of PD-L1 is usually not very effective in colon cancer patients. Here, the authors show the efficacy of PD-L1 blockade in combination with coordination polymer nanoparticles carrying oxaliplatin and a photosensitizer to induce anti-tumor immunity in metastatic models of colon cancer.

    • Chunbai He
    • , Xiaopin Duan
    •  & Wenbin Lin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The use of inorganic carriers for drug delivery is often limited by toxicity and persistence of inorganic species in the body. Here, the authors report the use of nanocarriers with a liquid-phase eutectic gallium-indium core capable of delivering doxorubicin and subsequently fusing and degrading under mildly acidic conditions.

    • Yue Lu
    • , Quanyin Hu
    •  & Zhen Gu

  • Article |

    An integrated electronic platform with site-specific sensitivity is highly needed for medical applications. Here, Kim et al.report a stretchable prosthetic skin composed of ultrathin single crystalline silicon nanoribbon array, which can sense strain, pressure and temperature spontaneously.

    • Jaemin Kim
    • , Mincheol Lee
    •  & Dae-Hyeong Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cell therapy requires sufficient amounts of therapeutic cells to be delivered to the injured tissue. Here the authors use magnetic iron nanoparticles conjugated with antibodies that bind therapeutic cells and cardiomyocytes to treat myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats and show that targeting to the heart is enhanced upon local application of a magnetic field.

    • Ke Cheng
    • , Deliang Shen
    •  & Eduardo Marbán

  • Article |

    Nanoparticles can be used for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes. Here, the authors report that nanoparticles made of a single chemical building block, called nanoporphyrins, incorporate eight different functionalities, including various types of imaging, drug delivery and cancer therapy.

    • Yuanpei Li
    • , Tzu-yin Lin
    •  & Kit S. Lam

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photosensitisers are used in cancer therapy to promote the formation of reactive oxygen species on irradiation with light. Here, the authors present a graphene quantum dot photosensitiser with a singlet oxygen quantum yield of approximately 1.3, and investigate its in vitro and in vivoapplications

    • Jiechao Ge
    • , Minhuan Lan
    •  & Xiaodong Han

  • Article |

    Polymer-based drug-delivery strategies can sometimes be hampered by the poor stability of polymer–drug conjugates and their ineffectual drug-release profiles. Here, the authors fabricate a cyclodextrin-based polymer–drug nano-assembly and demonstrate effective in vivotumour reduction activity.

    • Ran Namgung
    • , Yeong Mi Lee
    •  & Won Jong Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photochemical internalisation is the process by which a laser source activates light sensitive compounds for cellular uptake. Here, the authors combine this technique with photo–chemo degradable polymers for the controlled uptake of chemotherapeutics into cancer cells showing increased cell death.

    • George Pasparakis
    • , Theodore Manouras
    •  & Panagiotis Argitis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    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 |

    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

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