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Nitric oxide (NO) has been well identified as a specific free radical molecule possessing wide-ranging therapeutic effects. Targeted delivery and controlled release of NO are highly desired to realize precision gas therapy, but are still challenging owing to the non-targetability and uncontrollability of NO itself. Herein, we propose a new concept of MRI-guided and ultrasound-triggered gas release for precision gas therapy. Based on this concept, we develop a novel ultrasound-responsive BNN-type NO-releasing molecule (NORM) and an advanced rattle-type nano-carrier of superparamagnetic iron oxide-encapsulated mesoporous silica nanoparticles (SPION@hMSN), and use them to construct a new intelligent nanomedicine (BNN6-SPION@hMSN) for the first time. The BNN6-SPION@hMSN nanomedicine exhibits excellent passive tumor-targeting capability, high MRI-guided tumor localization performance and a unique ultrasound-triggered NO release profile. The tumor-targeted, MRI-guided and ultrasound-triggered release profiles of the developed nanomedicine enable the tumor site-specific controlled release of NO in favor of high-efficacy and safe NO gas therapy of tumor.

Biophotonic technology that uses light and ionizing radiation for positioned cancer therapy is a holy grail in the field of biomedicine because it can overcome the systemic toxicity and adverse side effects of conventional chemotherapy. However, the existing biophotonic techniques fail to achieve the satisfactory treatment efficacy, which remains a big challenge for clinical implementation. Herein, we develop a novel theranostic technique of "intranuclear biophotonics" by the smart design of a nuclear-targeting biophotonic system based on photo-/radio-sensitizers covalently co-loaded upconversion nanoparticles. These nuclear-targeting biophotonic agents can not only generate a great deal of multiple cytotoxic reactive oxygen species in the nucleus by making full use of NIR/X-ray irradiation, but also produce greatly enhanced intranuclear synergetic radio-/photodynamic therapeutic effects under the magnetic/luminescent bimodal imaging guidance, which may achieve the optimal efficacy in treating radio-resistant tumors. We anticipate that the highly effective intranuclear biophotonics will contribute significantly to the development of biophotonic techniques and open new perspectives for a variety of cancer theranostic applications., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Metastasis is deadly and also tough to treat as it is much more complicated than the primary tumour. Anti-metastasis approaches available so far are far from being optimal. A variety of nanomedicine formulae provide a plethora of opportunities for developing new strategies and means for tackling metastasis. It should be noted that individualized anti-metastatic nanomedicines are different from common anti-cancer nanomedicines as they specifically target different populations of malignant cells. This review briefly introduces the features of the metastatic cascade, and proposes a series of nanomedicine-based anti-metastasis strategies aiming to block each metastatic step. Moreover, we also concisely introduce the advantages of several promising nanoparticle platforms and their potential for constructing state-of-the-art individualized anti-metastatic nanomedicines.

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs), as one of the most promising inorganic drug carriers, have attracted ever increasing attention due to their unique structural, physicochemical, and biochemical features. Drug delivery systems (DDSs) based on MSNs could easily escape from endosomes after endocytosis and protect the loaded drugs from bioerosion by stable MSN carriers, efficiently deliver drugs intracellularly in a sustained release way, and consequently kill cancer cells at enhanced efficacy. However, the underlying pathways and mechanisms of cancer cell death induced by MSN-mediated drug delivery have not been well explored. In this study, we introduce gene expression analyses to evaluate the pathways and mechanisms of cancer cell death induced by a MSN-based drug delivery system. Unique changes in gene expressions and gene ontology terms, which were caused only by the MSN-based DDS (DOX-loaded MSNs, DOX@MSNs) but not by free drug doxorubicin (DOX) and/or the carrier MSNs, were discovered and proposed to be responsible for the varied cell death mechanisms, including the greatly enhanced necrosis due to amplified oxidative stress and the apoptosis related with DNA/RNA synthesis and cell cycle inhibitions. By virtue of a certain kind of synergetic biological effect between the drug and the carrier, the DOX@MSNs DDS was found capable of increasing the intracellular levels of reactive oxygen species and triggering the mitochondria-related autophagic lysosome pathway, consequently activating a specific pathway of necrosis, which is different from those by the free drug and the carrier.

In the anti-cancer war, there are three main obstacles resulting in high mortality and recurrence rate of cancers: the severe toxic side effect of anti-cancer drugs to normal tissues due to the lack of tumor-selectivity, the multi-drug resistance (MDR) to free chemotherapeutic drugs and the deadly metastases of cancer cells. The development of state-of-art nanomedicines based on mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) is expected to overcome the above three main obstacles. In the view of the fast development of anti-cancer strategy, this review highlights the most recent advances of MSN anti-cancer nanomedicines in enhancing chemotherapeutic efficacy, overcoming the MDR and inhibiting metastasis. Furthermore, we give an outlook of the future development of MSNs-based anti-cancer nanomedicines, and propose several innovative and forward-looking anti-cancer strategies, including tumor tissue-cell-nuclear successionally targeted drug delivery strategy, tumor cell-selective nuclear-targeted drug delivery strategy, multi-targeting and multi-drug strategy, chemo-/radio-/photodynamic-/ultrasound-/thermo-combined multi-modal therapy by virtue of functionalized hollow/rattle-structured MSNs., (© 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

The development of multidrug resistance (MDR) in cancer cells is one of major obstacles to the effective cancer chemotherapy. In this report we demonstrate the effective circumvention of multidrug resistance in cancer cells by an active nuclear-targeted drug delivery system that was constructed by conjugating TAT peptide onto the surface of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs-TAT). The conjugation of TAT peptide facilitated the intranuclear localization of MSNs-TAT and the release of the encapsulated drugs directly within the nucleoplasm. The direct intranuclear drug delivery of doxorubicin (DOX) in multidrug resistant MCF-7/ADR cancer cells was capable of increasing the intracellular as well as intranuclear drug concentrations much more effectively than free DOX or delivered by MSNs in the absence of TAT peptide. With the nuclear drug delivery fashion, DOX-MSNs-TAT presents a promising strategy in overcoming MDR in cancer cells and improving the therapeutic index of currently available chemotherapeutics by enhancing therapeutic efficacy and reducing side effects., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A hierarchical theranostic nanostructure with carbon and Si nanocrystals respectively encapsulated in the mesopores and within the framework of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (CS-MSNs) was constructed by a bottom-up self-assembly strategy combining an in situ one-step carbonization/crystallization approach. CS-MSNs exhibited narrow size distribution, high payload of insoluble drugs and unique NIR-to-Vis luminescence imaging feature. The bio-conjugated CS-MSNs with a PEGylated phospholipid compound and hyaluronic acid showed excellent dispersivity and could specifically target cancer cells overexpressing CD44, deliver insoluble drugs into these cells and consequently kill them effectively, and also fluorescently image them simultaneously in a unique and attractive NIR-to-Vis luminescence imaging fashion, providing a promising opportunity for cancer theranostics., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The extremely low longitudinal relaxivity (r(1)) of manganese oxide has severely impeded their substitution for cytotoxic gadolinium-based contrast agents for safe clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Here, we report on a synthetic strategy of chemical oxidation/reduction reaction in-situ in mesopores, followed by hydrogen reduction, for the fabrication of non-toxic manganese oxide/MSNs-based MRI-T(1) contrast agents with highly comparable imaging performance to commercial Gd-based agents. This strategy involves a "soft-templating" process to prepare mesoporous silica nanoparticles, in-situ reduction of MnO(4)(-) by the "soft templates" in mesopores and heat treatment under reducing atmosphere, to disperse manganese oxide nanoparticles within mesopores. This special nanostructure combines the merits of nanopores for maximum manganese paramagnetic center accessibility for water molecules for enhanced MRI performance and encapsulation/sustained release/intracellular delivery of drugs. The synthesized manganese oxide/MSNs were successfully assessed as a high performance contrast agent for MRI-T(1) both in intro and in vivo, and meanwhile, was also demonstrated as an effective anti-cancer drug delivery (doxorubicin) vehicle, therefore, a family of manganese-based theranostics was successfully demonstrated based on the manganese oxide/MSNs composite., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A composite scaffold drug delivery system (CS-DDS) for osteoarticular tuberculosis therapy has been prepared by loading bi-component drugs into a mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs)-coated porous β-TCP scaffold, which was followed by an additional bioactive glass coating. Such a CS-DDS showed high performances in the local and extremely sustained delivery of the bi-component antitubercular drugs and excellent biocompatibility. N(2) sorption isotherms indicated greatly increased surface area of the composites compared to pure β-TCP scaffold, and the mesopores were around 2.6 nm which were large enough to encapsulate drugs such as isoniazide and rifampicin. The in vitro and in vivo release tests demonstrated extra sustained co-release profiles of rifampicin and isoniazide from such a CS-DDS, and both drug concentrations kept higher than their effective values to kill mycobacterium tuberculosis for as long as 42 days. The hepatic and renal function tests indicated that the CS-DDS had neglectable long-term lesions to liver and kidney., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The rhodamine B (RhB) covalently grafted SBA-15-structured mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs-RhB) of high surface area (750 m(2) g(-1)), large pore volume (0.7 cm(3) g(-1)), uniform particle size (about 400 nm) and positively charged surface (29.6 +/- 5.0 mV), has been developed as a drug delivery system (SAB@MSNs-RhB) for anti-ROS (reactive oxygen species)/hepatic fibrosis by loading a negatively charged drug salvianolic acid B (SAB). The dosage formulation SAB@MSNs-RhB effectively protected the loaded drug SAB from decomposition. The multi-release experimental results showed that SAB@MSNs-RhB exhibited an outstanding SAB sustained-release property, and relatively high SAB release rates and concentrations in a long term after the consumption of previously released SAB as compared to SAB loaded MSNs (SAB@MSNs) of negatively charged surface (-31.1 +/- 2.6 mV). The influences of the drug concentration, incubation time, drug formula and drug carrier on the ROS level, proliferative activity and cytotoxicity of LX-2 cells were evaluated. The results showed that the inhibiting effect of SAB@MSNs-RhB on the ROS level and proliferative activity of LX-2 cells was more remarkable than free SAB in a long term (72 h), and became more intensive with the increase of the sample concentration and the incubation time. SAB@MSNs-RhB enhanced the cellular drug uptake, the drug bioaccessability and efficacy for anti-ROS/hepatic fibrosis via the nanoparticles-mediated endocytosis and the sustained release of the drug. There was no visible cytotoxicity of free SAB, MSNs-RhB and SAB@MSNs-RhB against LX-2 cells in a broad concentration range (0.5-100 microm) and incubation time periods up to 72 h. The blood compatibility of the carrier MSNs-RhB was evaluated by investigating the hemolysis and coagulation behaviors in a broad concentration range (50-500 microg mL(-1)) under in vitro conditions. The results suggested that MSNs-RhB possessed good blood compatibility., (Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Three types of surfactant-templated mesoporous silica nanoparticles (Surf@MSNs) of 150-660 nm in diameter were developed as anticancer drug delivery systems. The Surf@MSNs exhibit the high drug (surfactant) loading capacities, the sustained drug (surfactant) release profiles and the high and long-term anticancer efficacy. The effects of the Surf@MSNs concentration, the type of the contained surfactants and the incubation time on the cytotoxicity and proliferative activity of MCF-7 cells were evaluated. A common anticancer drug CPT-11 was also loaded into surfactant-free MSNs (CPT@MSNs) and used as a reference for estimating the anticancer efficacies of Surf@MSNs. Surfactant-extracted MSNs exhibited neglectable cytotoxicity to MCF-7 cell, and free surfactants exhibited higher cytotoxicity than free CPT-11 at the same concentration. The endocytosis enhanced the drug uptake by MCF-7 cells and the anticancer efficacies of Surf@MSNs and CPT@MSNs, and more surfactants would be released in a longer term, which led to the more significant enhancement of the cytotoxicity, than CPT-11 with the process of incubation. Among the investigated Surf@MSNs, CTAB-contained MSNs (CTAB@MSNs) show remarkably higher long-term anticancer efficacy than CPT-11-loaded surfactant-free MSNs (CPT@MSNs), even at very low concentrations of 2-15 microg mL(-1)., (Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The benefits to intracellular drug delivery from nanomedicine have been limited by biological barriers and to some extent by targeting capability. We investigated a size-controlled, dual tumor-mitochondria-targeted theranostic nanoplatform (Porphyrin-PEG Nanocomplexes, PPNs). The maximum tumor accumulation (15.6 %ID g−1, 72 h p.i.) and ideal tumor-to-muscle ratio (16.6, 72 h p.i.) was achieved using an optimized PPN particle size of approximately 10 nm, as measured by using PET imaging tracing. The stable coordination of PPNs with 177Lu enables the integration of fluorescence imaging (FL) and photodynamic therapy (PDT) with positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and internal radiotherapy (RT). Furthermore, the efficient tumor and mitochondrial uptake of 177Lu-PPNs greatly enhanced the efficacies of RT and/or PDT. This work developed a facile approach for the fabrication of tumor-targeted multi-modal nanotheranostic agents, which enables precision and radionuclide-based combination tumor therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multifunctional stimuli-responsive nanotheranostic systems are highly desirable for realizing simultaneous biomedical imaging and on-demand therapy with minimized adverse effects. Herein, we present the construction of an intelligent X-ray-controlled NO-releasing upconversion nanotheranostic system (termed as PEG-USMSs-SNO) by engineering UCNPs with S-nitrosothiol (R-SNO)-grafted mesoporous silica. The PEG-USMSs-SNO is designed to respond sensitively to X-ray radiation for breaking down the S-N bond of SNO to release NO, which leads to X-ray dose-controlled NO release for on-demand hypoxic radiosensitization besides upconversion luminescent imaging through UCNPs in vitro and in vivo. Thanks to the high live-body permeability of Xray, our developed PEG-USMSs-SNO may provide a new technique for achieving depth-independent controlled NO release and positioned radiotherapy enhancement against deep-seated solid tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A type of pH-responsive nano multi-drug delivery systems (nano-MDDSs) with uniform particle size (100 ± 13 nm) and excellent monodispersity was developed by in situ co-self-assembly among water-insoluble anti-cancer drug (doxorubicin, DOX), surfactant micelles (CTAB) as chemosensitiver and silicon species forming drugs/surfactant micelles-co-loaded mesoporous silica nanoparticles (drugs@micelles@MSNs or DOX@CTAB@MSNs) via a micelles–MSNs self-assembly mechanism. The nano-MDDS DOX@CTAB@MSNs had a highly precise pH-responsive drug release behavior both in vitro and in vivo, and exhibited high drug efficiencies against drug-resistant MCF-7/ADR cells as well as drug-sensitive MCF-7 cells by the MSNs-mediated transmembrane delivery, the sustained drug release and the high anti-cancer and multi-drug resistance (MDR)-overcoming efficiencies. The MDR-overcoming mechanism was proved to be a synergistic cell cycle arrest/apoptosis-inducing effect resulted from the chemosensitization of the surfactant CTAB. These results demonstrated a very promising nano-MDDS for the pH-responsive controlled drug release and the cancer MDR overcoming. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The extremely low longitudinal relaxivity (r 1) of manganese oxide has severely impeded their substitution for cytotoxic gadolinium-based contrast agents for safe clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Here, we report on a synthetic strategy of chemical oxidation/reduction reaction in-situ in mesopores, followed by hydrogen reduction, for the fabrication of non-toxic manganese oxide/MSNs-based MRI-T1 contrast agents with highly comparable imaging performance to commercial Gd-based agents. This strategy involves a “soft-templating” process to prepare mesoporous silica nanoparticles, in-situ reduction of by the “soft templates” in mesopores and heat treatment under reducing atmosphere, to disperse manganese oxide nanoparticles within mesopores. This special nanostructure combines the merits of nanopores for maximum manganese paramagnetic center accessibility for water molecules for enhanced MRI performance and encapsulation/sustained release/intracellular delivery of drugs. The synthesized manganese oxide/MSNs were successfully assessed as a high performance contrast agent for MRI-T1 both in intro and in vivo, and meanwhile, was also demonstrated as an effective anti-cancer drug delivery (doxorubicin) vehicle, therefore, a family of manganese-based theranostics was successfully demonstrated based on the manganese oxide/MSNs composite. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]