Fluorescent Nanomaterials for Biomedical Applications

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Background

Innovations in nanoscience have paved new paths in clinical diagnostic and biological assays. Fluorescent nanomaterials have demonstrated enormous potential to advance biomedical applications and have provided a deeper understanding of biology and medicine at the molecular level. Fluorescent nanoparticles (NPs) have been widely studied in preclinical research, for bio-imaging, cancer therapy, theranostics, drug delivery owing to their attractive optical properties. Fluorescent NPs hold several advantages comparing to free fluorescent dyes for clinical application such as biocompatibility and photostability. The design of the fluorescent nanoparticles has to consider not only parameters related to improved fluorescence but also aim to offer efficient blood circulation half-life, targeted delivery, biocompatibility, and low toxicity. Engineering fluorescent NPs represents significant applications in nanomedicine for treatment, diagnosis, monitoring, and control of biological systems.

This research topic focuses on different types of fluorescent NPs: Quantum dots, fluorescent dye-loaded inorganic, and organic NPs, fluorescent metallic nanoparticles, fluorescent magnetic nanoparticles, fluorescent carbon-based nanomaterials, fluorescent silicon-based nanomaterials, upconversion fluorescent nanoparticles, and polymer dots. They make excellent drug carriers, imaging contrast agents, photothermal agents, photoacoustic agents, and radiation dose enhancers. An overview of the NPs includes design parameters of these nanoparticles for their in vitro and in vivo applications such as blood circulation time, biodistribution, tumor delivery efficiency, biocompatibility, clearance, toxicity, and the fluorescence imaging technology status in the clinic.

Although the imaging and therapy modalities have improved significantly over the past few years, there are still limitations in nanomaterial obstructing its applications. For example, no single molecular imaging modality can offer all the required data fully characterizing the properties of an administered agent. Each imaging modality has a major shortcoming, for example, MRI has high-resolution but low sensitivity, optical techniques have limited tissue penetration, and radioisotope imaging techniques have a relatively poor resolution but high sensitivity. Combining multiple imaging techniques can enable these applications to complement one another, and a multimodal imaging agent becomes the key to enhancing those imaging systems.

This Research topic aims to gather new developments and future trends in fluorescence nanomaterials including nanoparticles, hybrid nanomaterials, and nanocomposites for biomedical science and engineering. Original Research, Review, Mini Review, and Perspectives are welcome from multidisciplinary research fields, with focus on topics including, but not limited to:

• Development of multifunctional nanoparticles, nanocomposites and their use of in advanced biophysical applications

• Nanomaterials, such as nanoparticles, nanorods, nanodots, nanosphere, nanoshells, and nanostars etc., and their application in imaging and cancer therapy

• Development of different types of fluorescent NPs that deals with enormous potential for medical and clinical applications

• Quantum dots, fluorescent dye-loaded inorganic and organic NPs, fluorescent metallic nanoparticles, fluorescent magnetic nanoparticles, fluorescent carbon-based nanomaterials, fluorescent silicon-based nanomaterials, upconversion fluorescent nanoparticles, polymer dots

• Fluorescent nanomaterials in biomedical imaging and cancer therapy

• The medical imaging modalities including MRI, CT, positron emission tomography, single-photon emission computerized tomography, optical imaging, ultrasound, and photoacoustic imaging, etc.

• Various cancer therapeutic methods including photothermal therapy, drug carriers, photodynamic therapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy, etc.

• Theranostics, which use the same agent in diagnosis and therapy. This includes recent advances in multimodality

Keywords: Fluorescence, Nanoparticles, Biomedical applications, Imaging, Luminescence, Quantum dots, Carbon dots, Drug delivery, Cancer, Magnetic resonance imaging, Nanomedicine

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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