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Nanomaterials with diagnostic and therapeutic functions have exciting potential to reshape the landscape of precision medicine. Impressive progress has been made toward the design and production of innovative theranostic nanomaterials that improve disease care, motivated by their ability to simultaneously provide diagnostic information and therapeutic benefits. Herein, the state‐of‐the‐art theranostic semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are summarized, and the diverse types of QDs designed for the diagnosis and treatment of different diseases are discussed. The opportunities and benefits of QDs are highlighted throughout using in vitro and in vivo examples aimed at addressing various clinical challenges, including cancer, vascular dysfunctions, microbial infections, and medical tattoos. Over the past several years, this area has experienced enormous growth, particularly in preclinical animal imaging and therapy, which has brought the field closer to reaching human patients. Unfortunately, several barriers to clinical translation remain. Therefore, in addition to summarizing the key results from previous in vivo studies, the lessons learned from these studies are synthesized, perspective on the future steps needed for both fundamental studies and the clinical translation of theranostic QD nanotechnology to inform future QD design is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the extraordinary progress has been made in molecular biology, the prevention of cancer remains arduous. Most solid tumours exhibit both spatial and temporal heterogeneity, which is difficult to be mimicked in vitro. Additionally, the complex biochemical and immune features of tumour microenvironment significantly affect the tumour development. Molecular imaging aims at the exploitation of tumour‐associated molecules as specific targets of customized molecular probe, thereby generating image contrast of tumour markers, and offering opportunities to non‐invasively evaluate the pathological characteristics of tumours in vivo. Particularly, there are no "standard markers" as control in clinical imaging diagnosis of individuals, so the tumour pathological characteristics‐responsive nanoprobe‐based quantitative molecular imaging, which is able to visualize and determine the accurate content values of heterogeneous distribution of pathological molecules in solid tumours, can provide criteria for cancer diagnosis. In this context, a variety of "smart" quantitative molecular imaging nanoprobes have been designed, in order to provide feasible approaches to quantitatively visualize the tumour‐associated pathological molecules in vivo. This review summarizes the recent achievements in the designs of these nanoprobes, and highlights the state‐of‐the‐art technologies in quantitative imaging of tumour‐associated pathological molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly intricate in their multilevel multiscale microarchitecture, metamaterials with unique physical properties are challenging the inherent constraints of natural materials. Their applicability in the nanomedicine field still suffers because nanomedicine requires a maximum size of tens to hundreds of nanometers; however, this size scale has not been achieved in metamaterials. Therefore, "nano‐metamaterials," a novel class of metamaterials, are introduced, which are rationally designed materials with multilevel microarchitectures and both characteristic sizes and whole sizes at the nanoscale, investing in themselves remarkably unique and significantly enhanced material properties as compared with conventional nanomaterials. Microarchitectural regulation through conventional thermodynamic strategy is limited since the thermodynamic process relies on the frequency‐dependent effective temperature, Teff(ω), which limits the architectural regulation freedom degree. Here, a novel dual‐kinetic control strategy is designed to fabricate nano‐metamaterials by freezing a high‐free energy state in a Teff(ω)‐constant system, where two independent dynamic processes, non‐solvent induced block copolymer (BCP) self‐assembly and osmotically driven self‐emulsification, are regulated simultaneously. Fe3+‐"onion‐like core@porous corona" (Fe3+‐OCPCs) nanoparticles (the products) have not only architectural complexity, porous corona and an onion‐like core but also compositional complexity, Fe3+ chelating BCP assemblies. Furthermore, by using Fe3+‐OCPCs as a model material, a microstructure‐biological performance relationship is manifested in nano‐metamaterials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The diagnosis and treatment of triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC) is still a grand challenge, because there is rare target to be manipulated. Here, an integrated functional nanoprobe is developed for precise diagnosis and treatment of TNBC, based on biominerals of Fe3+ and rutin hydrate (RH), a type of natural flavonoid. Owing to the adjacent phenol hydroxyl groups of RH, Fe3+ can biomineralize with RH to form nanoprobe colloidally stabilized by coating of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP). In the nanoprobe, the flavonol central scaffold as well as the glucoside and rhamnose groups can interact specifically with glucose transporters. Once taken by tumor cells, protonation of phenol hydroxyl groups in the weakly acidic lysosomes would lead to release of Fe3+, inducing tumor cell death through a ferroptosis/apoptosis hybrid pathway. Meanwhile, the remaining Fe(III)–RH complex can serve as a photothermal therapy (PTT) agent upon near infrared laser irradiation. Additionally, the Fe(III)–RH/PVP nanoprobe is expected to be eliminated through renal clearance if the nanoprobe formed in the presence of PVP have an appropriately small hydrated diameter. The present work provides a novel design integrated with magnetic resonance imaging capacity, therapeutic functions of Fe3+, and the PTT effect of nanoprobe for TNBC with anticipated biosafety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypoxia is considered as a key microenvironmental feature of solid tumors. Luminescent transition metal complexes particularly those based on iridium and ruthenium have shown remarkable potentials for constructing sensitive oxygen‐sensing probes due to their unique oxygen quenching pathway. However, the low aqueous solubility of these complexes largely retards their sensing applications in biological media. Moreover, it remains difficult so far to use the existing complexes typically possessing only one luminescent domain to quantitatively detect the intratumoral hypoxia degree. Herein, an Ir(III) complex showing red emissions is designed and synthesized, and innovatively encapsulated within a hydrophobic pocket of Cyanine7‐modified cyclodextrin. The Ir(III) complex enables the oxygen detection, while the cyclodextrin is used not only for improving the water solubility and suppressing the luminescence quenching effect of the surrounding aqueous media, but also for carrying Cyanine7 to establish a ratiometric oxygen fluorescence probe. 2D nuclear magnetic resonance is carried out to confirm the host–guest structure. The oxygen‐responsive ability of the resulting ratiometric probe is evaluated through in vitro cell and multicellular experiments. Further animal studies about tumor oxygen level mapping demonstrate that the probe can be successfully used for quantitatively visualizing tumor hypoxia in vivo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies reveal that malignant tumors feature uneven distributions of some key biomarkers across the entire tumorous region. Nevertheless, only very limited progress has been made towards non‐invasive and quantitative detection of tumor‐specific biomarkers in vivo, especially with clinically compatible imaging modalities. Reported here is an Fe3O4 nanoparticle‐based glutathione (GSH) responsive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) probe that can form particle aggregates within tumors in vivo to give rise to strong GSH concentration dependent interlocked relaxivities. A quantitative correlation between the interlocked MRI signals and local GSH concentration was established, and further applied for mapping the heterogeneous distribution of GSH within an intracranial tumor (2.4 mm × 1.6 mm) in vivo. This methodology will offer a practical route for quantitatively mapping tumor‐specific biomarkers in vivo with unlimited detection depth, which largely challenges optical‐imaging‐based approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Imaging‐guided cancer therapy (IGCT) is rapidly emerging as a powerful precision cancer theranostic paradigm, as it can offer both diagnostic information and therapeutic benefits. But it relies on advanced theranostic agents that are largely constructed on top of nanomaterials. Conventionally, such theranostic agents are constructed by integrating different functional units, which will unnecessarily increase the size of the multi‐functional agents and inevitably encounter unwanted disassociation of the functional units in vivo, leading to false diagnosis and poor therapeutic efficacy. In this review, we highlight the state‐of‐the‐art progresses in biomedical applications of nanomaterials possessing built‐in functions suitable for cancer theranostic applications, particularly those who can convert near‐infrared (NIR) light into heat or radicals, as phototherapy holds remarkable promise for high‐precision cancer therapy. In addition, phototherapy can naturally be combined with photoacoustic imaging for realizing imaging‐guided therapy. In this context, the interactions between NIR and nanomaterials are classified and outlined. Then, different approaches for boosting imaging sensitivity and therapeutic efficacy, by improving the utilization of NIR light through different mechanisms, are discussed. Through examples on delineation and treatment of tumors in vivo, the opportunities and benefits of the theranostic nanoprobes for IGCT are highlighted. Moreover, the current challenges and future perspectives regarding both fundamental studies and clinical translation of the NIR‐mediated cancer theranostic agents are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "smart" nanoprobe‐based quantitative molecular imaging can mathematically visualize the tumour‐associated pathological biomarkers, such as proteins, nucleic acids, or metabolites, enabling it possible to quantitative monitor the spatiotemporal evolution of the pathological characteristics inside the tumors accurately, and contributing to improving prognosis and therapeutic intervention by enabling precise and individualized theranostic strategies..By Peisen Zhang; Wenyue Li; Chuang Liu; Feng Qin; Yijie Lu; Meng Qin and Yi HouReported by Author; Author; Author; Author; Author; Author; Author [Extracted from the article]

Exogenous FeIII can be used for cancer magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and potentially for cancer treatment by a ferroptosis pathway or photothermal ablation. To achieve this, effective and accurate delivery of FeIII to cancerous sites is critical, requiring a balance of release kinetics of Fe3+ in tumorous and normal tissues. A nanoprobe is described consisting of upconversion luminescence (UCL) nanoparticles as a core and a coordinatively unsaturated FeIII‐containing Fe3+/gallic acid complex as a shell. Owing to the introduction of an unsaturated coordination structure, FeIII in the nanoprobe can be released only in the tumor microenvironment in response to the lightly acidic pH. The multiple UCLs are used for quantitatively visualizing the release of Fe3+ in vivo, whilst the release resultant serves as a photothermal agent. This nanoprobe exhibited ligand‐free tumor targeting ability, activatable MR imaging performance, and efficacious therapeutic effects against tumors in vivo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]