Nanomedicine in China

DOI: 10.1002/adhm.201801051 the tumor growth, invasion, migration, etc., as well as elevated interstitial fluid pressure to reach tumorigenic areas. To show the recent progresses for this and related issues, in this special issue, nine review articles are collected contributing to tumor targeted delivery, cancer therapy via targeting the tumor microenvironment, and cancer theranostics. Although liposomes (i.e., Doxil, etc.) first received clinical approval for cancer treatment, a large variety of nanocarriers have been intensely investigated. Developing new treatment strategies has been put forward in modulating the tumor microenvironment using newly designed nanodelivery systems, such as those that are exogenous/endogenous-triggered, redox-activated, and pH, enzyme and/or hypoxia-responsive nanocarriers in tumor tissues, for example, DNA nanostructures (Chunhai Fan, et al. See article 1701153), Protein Nanotherapeutics (Zhiyuan Zhong and Zhuang Liu, et al. See article 1800685 and 1800913), Mesoporous Silica (Jianlin Shi, et al. See article 1800268), Prussian Blue Nanoparticles (Ning Gu, et al. See article 1800347), Carbon-Based Nanomaterials (Chunying Chen, et al. See article 1800525), Self-Assembly Nanomedicines (Daishun Ling, et al. See 1800359), Nanocarrier Modified with High-Affinity Peptides (Qiang Zhang, et al. See article 1800269), and Immune Checkpoint Blockade (Zhen Gu, et al. See article 1800424). Some inorganic nanomaterials have been synthesized to be responsive to an extrinsic energy source (i.e., magnetic field, laser, radiofrequency, microwave, ultrasound, etc.) with conversion into heat for tumor targeted phototherapy. Photothermal therapy to generate a synergistic effect was recognized as one of the most promising methods for cancer therapy. Here, Prof. Jun Lin introduces TiO2-based multifunctional nanocomposites for near-infrared light responsive phototherapy due to their outstanding photocatalytic properties and prominent biocompatibility (see article 1800351). Moreover, another five review papers are dedicated to biomedical imaging and diseases diagnostics. Aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens), first proposed by Prof. Ben Zhong Tang, have recently emerged as a new class of emitters that possess several notable features, such as high brightness, large Stokes shift, marked photostability, and good biocompatibility. His review (see article 1800477) has summarized the recent investigations of AIEgens for in vivo diagnosis and therapy, which revealed that AIEgens are of great promise for in vivo biomedical applications. To visualize the tumor microenvironment and tumor heterogeneity is critical not only for diagnostics but also for predicting the metastasis potential and therapeutic efficacy of tumor. Furthermore, the noninvasive molecular imaging technologies combined with novel “smart” nanoparticle-based activatable probes provide another feasible approach to visualize tumor-associated microenvironment factors (see article 1800391 by Mingyuan Gao, et al.). Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been emerging as one of a few new and promising biomarkers for liquid biopsies of cancer, due to their loading capability of some Prof. Y. Zhao CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety and CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience National Center for Nanoscience and Technology of China Beijing 100190, China E-mail: zhaoyl@nanoctr.cn From the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology over the past few decades, their applications cover many fields, such as in the information technology industries, chemical industries, material sciences, new/clean energy industries, industrial catalysis, environmental engineering, daily consumer items, biotechnologies, and medicine. Among them, nanomedicine research has made rapid progress and achieved many novel breakthroughs. Nanomedicine and its related research have been forming several emerging fields in recent years. It is estimated to be a $160 billion industry for nanomedicine-based markets. There are wide applications of nanotechnology in nanomedicine, including drug delivery, nanoanalytical contrast reagents, nanobiomaterials, nanopharmaceuticals, and medical nanorobotics, etc. Recent years have seen the implementation of several programs by governments and industries to bridge the gap between fundamental findings, translational efforts, outcomes of clinical research, and commercial products. For example, drug delivery systems developed from nanotechnology are widely using for disease-related diagnosis, treatment, surveillance and so on. Nanomedicines with small sizes (usually 10–100 nm), large specific surface area and many interface/ surface options, can significantly change their pharmacokinetic behaviors compared with conventional small molecular drugs. All these features provide powerful functions capable of passive or active targeting, low-toxicity, greatly improved solubility of insoluble drugs, improved bioavailability, and clinical efficacy of therapeutics. In these fields, China is playing a large role as well, therefore, it is an appropriate time to summarize the recent developments in the nanomedical research fields by Chinese researchers. This special issue on “Nanomedicine in China” includes 18 review articles to illustrate the impactful work of selected renowned and respected Chinese experts from nanomedicine-related fields. After the global efforts of over a century to combat them, human malignant tumors still remain to be one of the major public health concerns. To find alternative ways that are different from traditional strategies in cancer therapy and diagnosis, nanomaterial-based technologies have hence become an attractive research field in the past decade, a representative one being drug delivery. The major challenges in drug delivery techniques and the clinical efficacy of current therapeutics are the peculiarity of the tumor microenvironment, orchestrating