Articles

Dye-doped silica nanoparticles: synthesis, surface chemistry and bioapplications

Fluorescent silica nanoparticles have been extensively utilised in a broad range of biological applications and are facilitated by their predictable, well-understood, flexible chemistry and apparent biocompati...

Authors: Vladimir Gubala, Giorgia Giovannini, Filip Kunc, Marco P. Monopoli and Colin J. Moore

Nanomedicine review: clinical developments in liposomal applications

In recent years, disease treatment has evolved strategies that require increase in pharmaceutical agent’s efficacy and selectivity while decreasing their toxicity in normal tissues. These requirements have led...

Authors: Esteban Beltrán-Gracia, Adolfo López-Camacho, Inocencio Higuera-Ciapara, Jesús B Velázquez-Fernández and Alba A Vallejo-Cardona

A comparison of the radiosensitisation ability of 22 different element metal oxide nanoparticles using clinical megavoltage X-rays

A wide range of nanoparticles (NPs), composed of different elements and their compounds, are being developed by several groups as possible radiosensitisers, with some already in clinical trials. However, no sy...

Authors: Alexandra Guerreiro, Nicholas Chatterton, Eleanor M. Crabb and Jon P. Golding

Science vs. technology in radiation therapy from X-rays to ions

Authors: Eugene Surdutovich and Andrey V Solov’yov

Effects and side effects of plasmonic photothermal therapy in brain tissue

Heat generated from plasmonic nanoparticles can be utilized in plasmonic photothermal therapy. A combination of near-infrared laser and plasmonic nanoparticles is compelling for the treatment of brain cancer, ...

Authors: Yue He, Kristoffer Laugesen, Dana Kamp, Salik A. Sultan, Lene B. Oddershede and Liselotte Jauffred

Comparison of the effect of rhodium citrate-associated iron oxide nanoparticles on metastatic and non-metastatic breast cancer cells

Nanocarriers have the potential to improve the therapeutic index of currently available drugs by increasing drug efficacy, lowering drug toxicity and achieving steady-state therapeutic levels of drugs over an ...

Authors: Natalia Lemos Chaves, Danilo Aquino Amorim, Cláudio Afonso Pinho Lopes, Irina Estrela-Lopis, Julia Böttner, Aparecido Ribeiro de Souza and Sônia Nair Báo

Multiscale modeling for cancer radiotherapies

Ion-beam cancer therapy, an alternative to a common radiation therapy with X-rays, has been used clinically around the world since 1990s; the number of proton therapy centers as well as facilities using heavie...

Authors: Eugene Surdutovich and Andrey V. Solov’yov

The role of shock waves on the biodamage induced by ion beam radiation

Energetic ions irradiate the human body in different situations such as exposure to galactic cosmic rays and ion beam cancer therapy. Ions propagating through dense medium deposit energy on the nanometre scale...

Authors: Pablo de Vera, Eugene Surdutovich and Andrey V. Solov’yov

Phenomenon-based evaluation of relative biological effectiveness of ion beams by means of the multiscale approach

Relative biological effectiveness (RBE) is a key quantity for the description of radiobiological effects induced by charged-particle irradiation in the context of ion-beam cancer therapy. Since RBE is a comple...

Authors: Alexey Verkhovtsev, Eugene Surdutovich and Andrey V. Solov’yov

Importance of radiolytic reactions during high-LET irradiation modalities: LET effect, role of O₂ and radiosensitization by nanoparticles

This article reviews radiation chemistry processes induced by high-linear energy transfer (LET) radiation. The first part gives a short historical introduction and defines the essential concepts of radiation c...

Authors: Gérard Baldacchino, Emilie Brun, Ibtihel Denden, Sarah Bouhadoun, Raphael Roux, Hicham Khodja and Cécile Sicard-Roselli

In vitro anticancer activity of folate-modified docetaxel-loaded PLGA nanoparticles against drug-sensitive and multidrug-resistant cancer cells

Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) is a biodegradable and biocompatible polymer which is widely used as a matrix to incorporate therapeutic agents. The anticancer activity of targeted folate-modified docetaxel-...

Authors: Yuri I. Poltavets, Alexander S. Zhirnik, Vasilisa V. Zavarzina, Yuliya P. Semochkina, Valentina G. Shuvatova, Anna A. Krasheninnikova, Sergey V. Aleshin, Danil O. Dronov, Eugeny A. Vorontsov, Vadim Yu. Balabanyan and Galina A. Posypanova

Use of a lipid nanoparticle system as a Trojan horse in delivery of gold nanoparticles to human breast cancer cells for improved outcomes in radiation therapy

Radiotherapy is commonly used for treating cancer. Novel sensitizers, such as gold nanoparticles (GNPs), are being used to enhance the local radiation dose. It is not known how the uptake and radiation dose en...

Authors: Kyle Bromma, Kristy Rieck, Jayesh Kulkarni, Connor O’Sullivan, Wonmo Sung, Pieter Cullis, Jan Schuemann and Devika B. Chithrani

Comb-like PEG-containing polymeric composition as low toxic drug nanocarrier

Development of biocompatible multifunctional polymeric drug carriers is crucial in modern pharmaceutics aimed to create “smart” drugs. The high potential of the PEGylated comb-like polymeric nanocarrier (PNC) ...

Authors: Lesya Kobylinska, Igor Patereha, Natalia Finiuk, Natalia Mitina, Anna Riabtseva, Igor Kotsyumbas, Rostyslav Stoika, Alexander Zaichenko and Sandor G. Vari

Enhanced nanoparticle delivery exploiting tumour-responsive formulations

Nanoparticles can be used as drug carriers, contrast agents and radiosensitisers for the treatment of cancer. Nanoparticles can either passively accumulate within tumour sites, or be conjugated with targeting...

Authors: Lindsey A. Bennie, Helen O. McCarthy and Jonathan A. Coulter

Towards photon radiotherapy treatment planning with high Z nanoparticle radiosensitisation agents: the Relative Biological Effective Dose (RBED) framework

A novel treatment planning framework, the Relative Biological Effective Dose (RBED), for high Z nanoparticle (NP)-enhanced photon radiotherapy is developed and tested in silico for the medical exemplar of neoa...

Authors: Jeremy M. C. Brown, Gerard G. Hanna, Nathanael Lampe, Balder Villagomez-Bernabe, James R. Nicol, Jonathan A. Coulter and Fred J. Currell

C₆₀ fullerene and its nanocomplexes with anticancer drugs modulate circulating phagocyte functions and dramatically increase ROS generation in transformed monocytes

C₆₀ fullerene-based nanoformulations are proposed to have a direct toxic effect on tumor cells. Previous investigations demonstrated that C₆₀ fullerene used alone or being conjugated with chemotherapeutic agents ...

Authors: Larysa M. Skivka, Svitlana V. Prylutska, Mariia P. Rudyk, Nataliia M. Khranovska, Ievgeniia V. Opeida, Vasyl V. Hurmach, Yuriy I. Prylutskyy, Leonid F. Sukhodub and Uwe Ritter

Magnetic hyperthermia of breast cancer cells and MRI relaxometry with dendrimer-coated iron-oxide nanoparticles

Recently, some studies have focused on dendrimer nanopolymers as a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent or a vehicle for gene and drug delivery. Considering the suitable properties of these material...

Authors: Marzieh Salimi, Saeed Sarkar, Reza Saber, Hamid Delavari, Ali Mohammad Alizadeh and Hendrik Thijmen Mulder

Cisplatin-loaded hollow gold nanoparticles for laser-triggered release

Hollow gold nanoparticles (HGNPs) exposed to near-infrared (NIR) light yield photothermal effects that can trigger a variety of biological effects for potential biomedical applications. However, the mechanism ...

Authors: Chiyi Xiong, Wei Lu, Min Zhou, Xiaoxia Wen and Chun Li

Gene therapy with RALA/iNOS composite nanoparticles significantly enhances survival in a model of metastatic prostate cancer

Recent approvals of gene therapies by the FDA and the EMA for treatment of inherited disorders have further opened the door for assessment of nucleic acid pharmaceuticals for clinical usage. Arising from the p...

Authors: Cian M. McCrudden, John W. McBride, Joanne McCaffrey, Emma M. McErlean, Nicholas J. Dunne, Vicky L. Kett, Jonathan A. Coulter, Tracy Robson and Helen O. McCarthy

Gold nanoparticle mediated combined cancer therapy

The combined use of radiation therapy and chemotherapy is commonly being used in cancer treatment. The side effects of the treatment can be further minimized through targeted delivery of anticancer drugs and l...

Authors: Celina Yang, Kyle Bromma, Caterina Di Ciano-Oliveira, Gaetano Zafarana, Monique van Prooijen and Devika B. Chithrani

Antiangiogenic and antiapoptotic effects of green-synthesized zinc oxide nanoparticles using Sargassum muticum algae extraction

Algae are one of the natural materials used to green synthesis of nanoparticles. This method leads to minimize the toxicity of the chemical materials used to nanoparticle synthesis.

Authors: Zahra Sanaeimehr, Iraj Javadi and Farideh Namvar

Important parameters for optimized metal nanoparticles-aided electromagnetic field (EMF) effect on cancer

A number of experimental research findings for the metal nanoparticles (NPs)-mediated EMF photothermal therapy of cancer cells show an intriguing trend of the NPs’ size-dependent efficacy. This is a phenomenon...

Authors: Lawrence Ochoo, Charles Migwi and John Okumu

The study of toxicity and pathogenicity risk of Potato Virus X/Herceptin nanoparticles as agents for cancer therapy

Nowadays, viral nanoparticles (VNPs) have attracted a lot of attention, although some are concerned that VNPs may reflect on viral entry of virus into animal or plant cells. In the present study, it aimed to i...

Authors: Neda Esfandiari, Mohsen Karimi Arzanani and Mina Koohi-Habibi

Electrochemical and optical biosensors for early-stage cancer diagnosis by using graphene and graphene oxide

Conventional instruments for cancer diagnosis including magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography scan, are expensive and require long-waiting time, whilst the outcomes have not approached to the success...

Authors: Aditya Balaji and Jin Zhang

Particle therapy and nanomedicine: state of art and research perspectives

Cancer radiation therapy with charged particle beams, called particle therapy, is a new therapeutic treatment presenting major advantages when compared to conventional radiotherapy. Because ions have specific ...

Authors: Sandrine Lacombe, Erika Porcel and Emanuele Scifoni

From basics to clinic: Cancer Nanotechnology

Authors: Fred Currell, Steven Curley, Željka Krpetić and Mark Bellringer

Cancer resistance to treatment and antiresistance tools offered by multimodal multifunctional nanoparticles

Chemotherapeutic agents have limited efficacy and resistance to them limits today and will limit tomorrow our capabilities of cure. Resistance to treatment with anticancer drugs results from a variety of facto...

Authors: Eudald Casals, Muriel F. Gusta, Macarena Cobaleda-Siles, Ana Garcia-Sanz and Victor F. Puntes

The application of titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, fullerene, and graphene nanoparticles in photodynamic therapy

Nanoparticles (NPs) have been shown to have good ability to improve the targeting and delivery of therapeutics. In the field of photodynamic therapy (PDT), this targeting advantage of NPs could help ensure dru...

Authors: Zahraa Youssef, Régis Vanderesse, Ludovic Colombeau, Francis Baros, Thibault Roques-Carmes, Céline Frochot, Habibah Wahab, Joumana Toufaily, Tayssir Hamieh, Samir Acherar and Amirah Mohd Gazzali

Cancer characterization and diagnosis with SERS-encoded particles

Early diagnosis, monitoring and treatment selection of cancer represent major challenges in medicine. The definition of the complex clinical and molecular landscape of cancer requires the combination of multip...

Authors: Luca Guerrini, Nicolas Pazos-Perez, Eduardo Garcia-Rico and Ramon Alvarez-Puebla

Platinum nanoparticles: an exquisite tool to overcome radioresistance

Small metallic nanoparticles are proposed as potential nanodrugs to optimize the performances of radiotherapy. This strategy, based on the enrichment of tumours with nanoparticles to amplify radiation effects ...

Authors: Sha Li, Erika Porcel, Hynd Remita, Sergio Marco, Matthieu Réfrégiers, Murielle Dutertre, Fabrice Confalonieri and Sandrine Lacombe

An overview of current practice in external beam radiation oncology with consideration to potential benefits and challenges for nanotechnology

Over the past two decades, there has been a significant evolution in the technologies and techniques employed within the radiation oncology environment. Over the same period, extensive research into the use of...

Authors: Raymond B. King, Stephen J. McMahon, Wendy B. Hyland, Suneil Jain, Karl T. Butterworth, Kevin M. Prise, Alan R. Hounsell and Conor K. McGarry

Biological mechanisms of gold nanoparticle radiosensitization

There has been growing interest in the use of nanomaterials for a range of biomedical applications over the last number of years. In particular, gold nanoparticles (GNPs) possess a number of unique properties...

Authors: Soraia Rosa, Chris Connolly, Giuseppe Schettino, Karl T. Butterworth and Kevin M. Prise

A local effect model-based interpolation framework for experimental nanoparticle radiosensitisation data

A local effect model (LEM)-based framework capable of interpolating nanoparticle-enhanced photon-irradiated clonogenic cell survival fraction measurements as a function of nanoparticle concentration was develo...

Authors: Jeremy M. C. Brown and Fred J. Currell

Application of nanotechnology to cancer radiotherapy

Radiotherapy has been an integral treatment modality for cancer. The field arose from and progressed through innovations in physics, engineering, and biology. The evolution of radiation oncology will rely on t...

Authors: Yu Mi, Zhiying Shao, Johnny Vang, Orit Kaidar-Person and Andrew Z. Wang

Profiling lung adenocarcinoma by liquid biopsy: can one size fit all?

Cancer is first and foremost a disease of the genome. Specific genetic signatures within a tumour are prognostic of disease outcome, reflect subclonal architecture and intratumour heterogeneity, inform treatme...

Authors: Harry W. Clifford, Amy P. Cassidy, Courtney Vaughn, Evaline S. Tsai, Bianka Seres, Nirmesh Patel, Hannah L. O’Neill, Emil Hewage and John W. Cassidy

Synthetic nanoparticles for delivery of radioisotopes and radiosensitizers in cancer therapy

Radiotherapy has been, and will continue to be, a critical modality to treat cancer. Since the discovery of radiation-induced cytotoxicity in the late 19th century, both external and internal radiation sources...

Authors: Jun Zhao, Min Zhou and Chun Li

Gold nanoparticles for cancer radiotherapy: a review

Radiotherapy is currently used in around 50% of cancer treatments and relies on the deposition of energy directly into tumour tissue. Although it is generally effective, some of the deposited energy can advers...

Authors: Kaspar Haume, Soraia Rosa, Sophie Grellet, Małgorzata A. Śmiałek, Karl T. Butterworth, Andrey V. Solov’yov, Kevin M. Prise, Jon Golding and Nigel J. Mason

Optical fibre sensors: their role in in vivo dosimetry for prostate cancer radiotherapy

Review is made of dosimetric studies of current optical fibre technology in radiotherapy for therapeutic applications, focusing particularly on in vivo dosimetry for prostate radiotherapy. We present the vario...

Authors: P. Woulfe, F. J. Sullivan and S. O’Keeffe

Trends in targeted prostate brachytherapy: from multiparametric MRI to nanomolecular radiosensitizers

The treatment of localized prostate cancer is expected to become a significant problem in the next decade as an increasingly aging population becomes prone to developing the disease. Recent research into the b...

Authors: Alexandru Mihai Nicolae, Niranjan Venugopal and Ananth Ravi

Intravital microscopy for evaluating tumor perfusion of nanoparticles exposed to non-invasive radiofrequency electric fields

Poor biodistribution and accumulation of chemotherapeutics in tumors due to limitations on diffusive transport and high intra-tumoral pressures (Jain RK, Nat Med. 7(9):987–989, 2001) have prompted the investigati...

Authors: Norman A. Lapin, Martyna Krzykawska-Serda, Matthew J. Ware, Steven A. Curley and Stuart J. Corr

Gazelles, unicorns, and dragons battle cancer through the Nanotechnology Startup Challenge

On March 4th, 2016, Springer’s Cancer Nanotechnology office promoted the launch of the Nanotechnology Startup Challenge in Cancer (NSC ² ). This innovati...

Authors: Rosemarie Truman and Cody J. Locke

Nanotechnology and cancer: improving real-time monitoring and staging of bladder cancer with multimodal mesoporous silica nanoparticles

Despite being one of the most common cancers, bladder cancer is largely inefficiently and inaccurately staged and monitored. Current imaging methods detect cancer only when it has reached “visible” size and ha...

Authors: Sean K Sweeney, Yi Luo, Michael A O’Donnell and Jose Assouline

Cancer Nanotechnology Startup Challenge: a new way to realize the fruits of innovation

A significant new innovation-development model is being launched in the field of cancer and nanotechnology. A significant new innovation-development model is being launched in the field of cancer and nanotechn...

Authors: Fred Currell and Mark Bellringer

Bio-conjugation of antioxidant peptide on surface-modified gold nanoparticles: a novel approach to enhance the radical scavenging property in cancer cell

Functionalized gold nanoparticles are emerging as a promising nanocarrier for target specific delivery of the therapeutic molecules in a cancer cell, as a result it targeted selectively to the cancer cell and ...

Authors: Sushma Kalmodia, Suryanarayanan Vandhana, B. R. Tejaswini Rama, Balasubramanyam Jayashree, T. Sreenivasan Seethalakshmi, Vetrivel Umashankar, Wenrong Yang, Colin J. Barrow, Subramanian Krishnakumar and Sailaja V. Elchuri

AGuIX nanoparticles as a promising platform for image-guided radiation therapy

AGuIX are gadolinium-based nanoparticles developed mainly for imaging due to their MR contrast properties. They also have a potential role in radiation therapy as a radiosensitizer. We used MRI to quantify the...

Authors: Alexandre Detappe, Sijumon Kunjachan, Joerg Rottmann, James Robar, Panagiotis Tsiamas, Houari Korideck, Olivier Tillement and Ross Berbeco

Erratum to: Contact-mediated intracellular delivery of hydrophobic drugs from polymeric nanoparticles

Authors: Sofie Snipstad, Sara Westrøm, Yrr Mørch, Mercy Afadzi, Andreas K O Åslund and Catharina de Lange Davies

DNA vaccination for prostate cancer: key concepts and considerations

While locally confined prostate cancer is associated with a low five year mortality rate, advanced or metastatic disease remains a major challenge for healthcare professionals to treat and is usually terminal....

Authors: Grace Cole, Joanne McCaffrey, Ahlam A. Ali and Helen O. McCarthy

Exploratory use of docetaxel loaded acid-prepared mesoporous spheres for the treatment of malignant melanoma

Five year survival for metastatic melanoma (MM) is very low at <10%. Therapeutic options have been limited secondary to systemic toxicity. As a result there has been a growing movement towards developing targe...

Authors: Sameer Kaiser, Maximilian B MacPherson, Ted A James, Albert Emery, Page Spiess, Albert van der Vliet, Christopher C Landry and Arti Shukla

Contact-mediated intracellular delivery of hydrophobic drugs from polymeric nanoparticles

Encapsulation of drugs in nanoparticles can enhance the accumulation of drugs in tumours, reduce toxicity toward healthy tissue, and improve pharmacokinetics compared to administration of free drug. To achieve...

Authors: Sofie Snipstad, Sara Westrøm, Yrr Mørch, Mercy Afadzi, Andreas KO Åslund and Catharina de Lange Davies

Cell localisation of gadolinium-based nanoparticles and related radiosensitising efficacy in glioblastoma cells

Recently, the addition of nanoparticles (NPs) has been proposed as a new strategy to enhance the effect of radiotherapy particularly in the treatment of aggressive tumors such as glioblastoma. The physical pro...

Authors: Lenka Štefančíková, Erika Porcel, Pierre Eustache, Sha Li, Daniela Salado, Sergio Marco, Jean-Luc Guerquin-Kern, Matthieu Réfrégiers, Olivier Tillement, François Lux and Sandrine Lacombe