Nanomedicine in China
Authors: Yuliang Zhao
Journal: Advanced Healthcare Materials (2018)

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 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 specific proteins and nucleic acids that are closely associated with cancer states. A comprehensive overview of EV isolation and detection by nanotechnology is hence provided by Shutao Wang (see article 1800484). Another new field that has attracted tremendous attention is stem cell-based regenerative medicine, which shows great potential to treat numerous incurable diseases. The recent advances in tracking the transplanted stem cells using near-infrared fluorescent nanoprobes, turning from the first to the second near-infrared window, is given here, which would help understand the fate and regenerative capabilities of transplanted stem cells and may accelerate the clinical application of stem cell therapy (Qiangbin Wang et al. See article 1800497). A newly emerging research direction is with in situ self-assembled nanomaterials as therapeutics or fluorescence contrast agents/probes for biomedical imaging, including ex situ and in situ construction of self-assembled nanomedicine (see article 1800344 by Hao Wang et al.). In addition to cancer therapeutics, functional nanomaterials have been developed as a suitable drug agent for the treatment of other diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease. Xiaogang Qu, et al. (see article 1800320) established the redox-activated near-infrared responsive polyoxometalates-based nanoplaform ([email protected]@copolymer), which can generate local hyperthermia to disaggregate Aβ fibrils under NIR laser irradiation. Xuesi Chen, et al. (see article 1800354) provided a brief introduction of mechanisms and affecting factors of microbial killing by antimicrobial peptides and a systematic illustration of recent advances in the design and preparation of the biomimetic antimicrobial poly(α-amino acid)s. Xingyu Jiang, et al. (see article 1800334) introduced the fabrication of nanocellulose-based antimicrobial materials for wound dressings, drug carriers, and packaging materials that can benefit many biomedical applications. Shu Wang et al. (see article 1800670) also reviewed host-guest interactions of drug and competitive molecules, which could offer reversible regulations of antibiotic activity and inhibit the generation of drug-resistant bacteria. Yuliang Zhao, et al. (see article 1800421) developed multifunctional nanomaterials not only for establishing powerful drug delivery systems, but also for opening a new route to develop neozoic radioprotective agents, because some nanoparticles possess intrinsic radioprotective capacities towards normal tissues. This special issue highlights a multifunction-at-a-nanoparticle strategy. Considering disease treatment and biomedical imaging and diagnostics together, the smartest strategy is to integrate imaging, diagnostic and therapeutic modalities into a single nanoparticle formulation, which, named as "theranostic nanomedicine", may open a new way to monitor the progression of disease and accumulation of drugs during treatment. Thus, nanomedicine produces an opportunity for rational design of optimal therapeutic combinations (e.g., chemical therapeutics, photothermal therapy, photodynamic therapy, radiotherapy, etc). To summarize, this special issue is being organized to recognize the impact, current knowledge, and major implementation of nanomaterials in a next generation of medicine (nanomedicine) research in China. We would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to all authors for their support and contribution and wish that all readers will enjoy reading and benefit from this themed issue as we have. We believe that this special issue will inspire the researchers and students with their enthusiasm in exploring novel breakthrough ideas for more successful design and clinical translation of nanomedicine in the foreseeable future. Yuliang Zhao is an academic at Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is the founder and Director of Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials & Nanosafety, at the Institute of High Energy Physics and NCNST. His research interests mainly include nanobioanalytical chemistry, nanotoxicology, and cancer nanotechnology.