Nanotechnology in cancer articles from across Nature Portfolio

Conventional photodynamic therapy (PDT) is hindered by oxygen-dependent photosensitization pathways and high-power-density photoexcitation. Here, the authors develop polymer-based organic photosensitizers (PSs) through PS skeleton design and side-chain engineering to allow tumor-specific PDT under oxygen-free conditions using ultralow-power 808 nm photoexcitation.

Plasma membrane lysis is an effective anticancer strategy that mostly relies on soluble molecular membranolytic agents, while nanomaterial-based membranolytic agents have been unexplored. Herein, the authors report a nano- and molecular-scale multi-patterning strategy for fabricating mesoporous membranolytic nanoperforators with an intrinsic membranolytic activity.

Emulating the killing function of neutrophils, which involves the enzymatic cascade of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and myeloperoxidase (MPO), is promising for cancer therapy, but developing SOD-MPO cascade in one nanozyme is challenging. Here the authors report ultrasmall AuPd alloy nanozymes that mimic neutrophil enzymatic cascades for catalytic treatment of tumors.

The mechanisms of nanoparticle delivery to solid tumours guide the engineering of nanoparticles for cancer applications. This Review discusses two contrasting nanoparticle delivery mechanisms, the enhanced permeability and retention effect and the active transport and retention principle, and their implications for the design of cancer nanomedicines.

Bladder cancer treatment suffers from low therapeutic efficacy. Here the authors present radioactive ¹³¹I-labelled urease-powered nanobots that exhibit enhanced accumulation at the tumour site, enabling effective radionuclide therapy at low doses as an alternative treatment option for bladder cancer.

An article in Advanced Materials presents a drug delivery platform for cancer chemotherapy that is activated by radiation.

Targeting P-selectin enables safer and more effective nanomedicine delivery through caveolin-1-mediated endothelial transcytosis in preclinical medulloblastoma tumour models.

New evidence now suggests that the dominant mechanism of extravasation of nanoparticles into solid tumours may be through an active process of endothelial transcytosis.

Nanoparticles covered with a mix of positively and negatively charged ligands aggregate into supraparticles in the lysosomes of cancer cells, disrupting the integrity of the lysosomal membrane and killing the cells without involving any anticancer drugs.

Nanoparticles designed to harness transcytosis achieve deeper tumour penetration.

A single dose of carbon nanotubes enhances breast cancer metastasis in mouse models.