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1. Drug Delivery to the Brain across the Blood–Brain Barrier Using Nanomaterials

   https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.201701921  

   Tsou, Yung‐Hao; Zhang, Xue‐Qing; Zhu, He; Syed, Sahla; Xu, Xiaoyang (October 2017, Small)

   Abstract A major obstacle facing brain diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, brain tumors, and strokes is the blood–brain barrier (BBB). The BBB prevents the passage of certain molecules and pathogens from the circulatory system into the brain. Therefore, it is nearly impossible for therapeutic drugs to target the diseased cells without the assistance of carriers. Nanotechnology is an area of growing public interest; nanocarriers, such as polymer‐based, lipid‐based, and inorganic‐based nanoparticles can be engineered in different sizes, shapes, and surface charges, and they can be modified with functional groups to enhance their penetration and targeting capabilities. Hence, understanding the interaction between nanomaterials and the BBB is crucial. In this Review, the components and properties of the BBB are revisited and the types of nanocarriers that are most commonly used for brain drug delivery are discussed. The properties of the nanocarriers and the factors that affect drug delivery across the BBB are elaborated upon in this review. Additionally, the most recent developments of nanoformulations and nonconventional drug delivery strategies are highlighted. Finally, challenges and considerations for the development of brain targeting nanomedicines are discussed. The overall objective is to broaden the understanding of the design and to develop nanomedicines for the treatment of brain diseases. 

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2. Nanomaterials for Protein Delivery in Anticancer Applications

   https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics13020155  

   Yau, Anne; Lee, Jinhyung; Chen, Yupeng (February 2021, Pharmaceutics)

   null (Ed.)

   Nanotechnology platforms, such as nanoparticles, liposomes, dendrimers, and micelles have been studied extensively for various drug deliveries, to treat or prevent diseases by modulating physiological or pathological processes. The delivery drug molecules range from traditional small molecules to recently developed biologics, such as proteins, peptides, and nucleic acids. Among them, proteins have shown a series of advantages and potential in various therapeutic applications, such as introducing therapeutic proteins due to genetic defects, or used as nanocarriers for anticancer agents to decelerate tumor growth or control metastasis. This review discusses the existing nanoparticle delivery systems, introducing design strategies, advantages of using each system, and possible limitations. Moreover, we will examine the intracellular delivery of different protein therapeutics, such as antibodies, antigens, and gene editing proteins into the host cells to achieve anticancer effects and cancer vaccines. Finally, we explore the current applications of protein delivery in anticancer treatments. 

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3. Magneto-Optical Properties of Noble Metal Nanostructures

   https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-physchem-062322-043108  

   Foxley, Juniper; Knappenberger, Kenneth L. (April 2023, Annual Review of Physical Chemistry)

   The magneto-optical signatures of colloidal noble metal nanostructures, spanning both discrete nanoclusters (<2 nm) and plasmonic nanoparticles (>2 nm), exhibit rich structure-property correlations, impacting applications including photonic integrated circuits, light modulation, applied spectroscopy, and more. For nanoclusters, electron doping and single-atom substitution modify both the intensity of the magneto-optical response and the degree of transient spin polarization. Nanoparticle size and morphology also modulate the magnitude and polarity of plasmon-mediated magneto-optical signals. This intimate interplay between nanostructure and magneto-optical properties becomes especially apparent in magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) and magnetic circular photoluminescence (MCPL) spectroscopic data. Whereas MCD spectroscopy informs on a metal nanostructure's steady-state extinction properties, its MCPL counterpart is sensitive to electronic spin and orbital angular momenta of transiently excited states. This review describes the size- and structure-dependent magneto-optical properties of nanoscale metals, emphasizing the increasingly important role of MCPL in understanding transient spin properties and dynamics. 

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4. Theoretical and experimental studies of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) beating signal in phantoms and mice brains

   https://doi.org/doi: 10.1117/12.2304947  

   Qinglei Meng, Deepa Gupta (May 2018, Proc. SPIE 10662, Smart Biomedical and Physiological Sensor Technology XV, 106620D)

   Brain simulation techniques have demonstrated undisputable therapeutic effects on neural diseases. Invasive stimulation techniques like deep brain stimulation (DBS) and noninvasive techniques like transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) have been approved by FDA as treatments for many drug resist neural disorders and diseases. Developing noninvasive, deep, and targeted brain stimulation techniques is currently one of the important tasks in brain researches. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcranial alternative current stimulation (tACS) techniques have the advantages of low cost and portability. However, neither of them can produce targeted stimulation due to lacking of electrical field focusing mechanism. Recently, Grossman et al. reported using the down beating signals of two tACS signals to accomplish focused stimulation. By sending two sine waves running at slightly different high frequencies (~2kHz), they demonstrated that they can modulate a “localized” neuron group at the difference frequency of the two sine waves and at the same time avoid excitation of neurons at other locations. As a result, equivalent focusing effect was accomplished by such beating mechanism. In this work, we show neither theoretically nor experimentally the beating mechanism can produce “focusing effect” and the beating signal spread globally across the full brain. The localized modulation effect likely happened right at the electrode contact sites when the electrode contact area is small and the current is concentrated. We conclude that to accomplish noninvasive and focused stimulation at current stage the only available tool is the focused TMS system we recently demonstrated. 

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5. Biological Assembly of Modular Protein Building Blocks as Sensing, Delivery, and Therapeutic Agents

   https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-chembioeng-101519-121526  

   Berckman, Emily A.; Hartzell, Emily J.; Mitkas, Alexander A.; Sun, Qing; Chen, Wilfred (June 2020, Annual Review of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)

   Nature has evolved a wide range of strategies to create self-assembled protein nanostructures with structurally defined architectures that serve a myriad of highly specialized biological functions. With the advent of biological tools for site-specific protein modifications and de novo protein design, a wide range of customized protein nanocarriers have been created using both natural and synthetic biological building blocks to mimic these native designs for targeted biomedical applications. In this review, different design frameworks and synthetic decoration strategies for achieving these functional protein nanostructures are summarized. Key attributes of these designer protein nanostructures, their unique functions, and their impact on biosensing and therapeutic applications are discussed. 

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