Core hydrophobicity tuning of a self-assembled particle results in efficient lipid reduction and favorable organ distribution

Stemness, invasion, and immunosuppression modulation in recurrent glioblastoma using nanotherapy

The recurrent nature of glioblastoma negatively impacts conventional treatment strategies leading to a growing need for nanomedicine. Nanotherapeutics, an approach designed to deliver drugs to specific sites, is experiencing rapid growth and gaining immense popularity. Having potential in reaching the hard-to-reach disease sites, this field has the potential to show high efficacy in combatting glioblastoma progression. The presence of glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) is a major factor behind the poor prognosis of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Stemness potential, heterogeneity, and self-renewal capacity, are some of the properties that make GSCs invade across the distant regions of the brain. Despite advances in medical technology and MRI-guided maximal surgical resection, not all GSCs residing in the brain can be removed, leading to recurrent disease. The aggressiveness of GBM is often correlated with immune suppression, where the T-cells are unable to infiltrate the cancer initiating GSCs. Standard of care therapies, including surgery and chemotherapy in combination with radiation therapy, have failed to tackle all the challenges of the GSCs, making it increasingly important for researchers to develop strategies to tackle their growth and proliferation and reduce the recurrence of GBM. Here, we will focus on the advancements in the field of nanomedicine that has the potential to show positive impact in managing glioblastoma tumor microenvironment. This article is categorized under: Therapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Nanomedicine for Oncologic Disease.

Macrophage-targeted nanomedicine for the diagnosis and management of atherosclerosis

Atherosclerosis is the primary cause of cardiovascular diseases, such as myocardial infarction and stroke, which account for the highest death toll worldwide. Macrophage is the major contributor to atherosclerosis progression, and therefore, macrophage-associated pathological process is considered an extremely important target for the diagnosis and treatment of atherosclerosis. However, the existing clinical strategies still have many bottlenecks and challenges in atherosclerosis’s early detection and management. Nanomedicine, using various nanoparticles/nanocarriers for medical purposes, can effectively load therapeutic agents, significantly improve their stability and accurately deliver them to the atherosclerotic plaques. In this review, we summarized the latest progress of the macrophage-targeted nanomedicine in the diagnosis and treatment of atherosclerosis, and their potential applications and clinical benefits are also discussed.

Artificial high-density lipoprotein-mimicking nanotherapeutics for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases

Despite the ability of current efficacious low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol-lowering therapies to reduce total cardiovascular disease (CVD) risks, CVD still poses major risks for morbidity and mortality to the general population. Because of the pleiotropic endothelial protective effects of high-density lipoproteins (HDL), the direct infusion of reconstituted HDL (rHDL) products, including MDCO-216, CER001, and CSL112, have been tested in clinical trials to determine whether direct infusion of rHDL can reduce coronary events in CVD patients. In addition to these rHDL products, in the past two decades, there has been an increased focused on designing artificial HDL-mimicking nanotherapeutics to produce complementary therapeutic strategies for CVD patients beyond lowering of atherogenic lipoproteins. Although recent reviews have comprehensively discussed the developments of artificial HDL-mimicking nanoparticles as therapeutics for CVD, there has been little assessment of "plain" or "drug-free" HDL-mimicking nanoparticles as therapeutics alone. In this review, we will summarize the clinical outcomes of rHDL products, examine recent advances in other types of artificial HDL-mimicking nanotherapeutics, including polymeric nanoparticles, cyclodextrins, micelles, metal nanoparticles, and so on; and potential new approaches for future CVD interventions. Moreover, success stories, lessons, and interpretations of the utility and functionality of these HDL-mimicking nanotherapeutics will be an integral part of this article. This article is categorized under: Therapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Nanomedicine for Cardiovascular Disease.

Applications of inorganic nanoparticles in the diagnosis and therapy of atherosclerosis

Atherosclerosis is a chronic progressive disease, which may result in serious clinical outcomes, such as acute heart events or stroke with high mortality. At present, the clinical problems of atherosclerosis mainly consist of the difficulty in confirming the plaques or identifying the stability of the plaques in the early phase and the shortage of valid treatments. Fortunately, with the development of nanotechnology, various inorganic nanoparticles with imaging enhancement and noninvasive therapy functions have been studied in the imaging and treatment of atherosclerosis, which has brought new hope to patients. This review focuses on the recent progress in the use of inorganic nanoparticles in the diagnosis and therapy of atherosclerosis, including the key processes in the development of atherosclerosis and the mainly involved cells, inorganic nanoparticle-based dual-mode imaging methods classified by the types of targeting cells, and inorganic nanoparticle-based therapeutic approaches, such as photothermal therapy (PTT), photodynamic therapy (PDT), sonodynamic therapy (SDT), drug delivery, gene therapy and imaging-guided therapy for atherosclerosis. Finally, this review discusses the challenges and directions of inorganic nanoparticles in potential clinical translation of anti-atherosclerosis in future. We believe this review will enable readers to systematically understand the progress of the inorganic nanoparticle-based imaging and therapy of atherosclerosis and therefore promote the further development of anti-atherosclerosis.

Dual-Targeted Synthetic Nanoparticles for Cardiovascular Diseases

Atherosclerosis is one of the world's most aggressive diseases, claiming over 17.5 million lives per year. This disease is usually caused by high amounts of lipoproteins circulating in the blood stream, which leads to plaque formation. Ultimately, these plaques can undergo thrombosis and lead to major heart damage. A major contributor to these vulnerable plaques is macrophage apoptosis. Development of nanovehicles that carry contrast and therapeutic agents to the mitochondria within these macrophages is attractive for the diagnosis and treatment of atherosclerosis. Here, we report the design and synthesis of a dual-targeted synthetic nanoparticle (NP) to perform the double duty of diagnosis and therapy in atherosclerosis treatment regime. A library of dual-targeted NPs with an encapsulated iron oxide NP, mito-magneto (MM), with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast enhancement capability was elucidated. Relaxivity measurements revealed that there is a substantial enhancement in transverse relaxivities upon the encapsulation of MM inside the dual-targeted NPs, highlighting the MRI contrast-enhancing ability of these NPs. Successful in vivo imaging documenting the distribution of MM-encapsulated dual-targeted NPs in the heart and aorta in mice ensured the diagnostic potential. The presence of mannose receptor targeting ligands and the optimization of the NP composition facilitated its ability to perform therapeutic duty by targeting the macrophages at the plaque. These dual-targeted NPs with the encapsulated MM were able to show therapeutic potential and did not trigger any toxic immunogenic response.

Nanoparticle systems for cancer vaccine

As effective tools for public health, vaccines prevent disease by priming the body's adaptive and innate immune responses against an infection. Due to advances in understanding cancers and their relationship with the immune system, there is a growing interest in priming host immune defenses for a targeted and complete antitumor response. Nanoparticle systems have shown to be promising tools for effective antigen delivery as vaccines and/or for potentiating immune response as adjuvants. Here, we highlight relevant physiological processes involved in vaccine delivery, review recent advances in the use of nanoparticle systems for vaccines and discuss pertinent challenges to viably translate nanoparticle-based vaccines and adjuvants for public use.