Recently, The Bismuth Science and Health Medical Materials Team from School of Materials Science and Chemistry published a paper titled “Recent advances in functional bismuth chalcogenide nanomaterials: Cancer theranostics, antibacterial and biosensing” in Coordination Chemistry Reviews. Dr. Wang Qian was the first author of the paper. Dr. Li Yuhao and Prof. Miao Yuqing was both the corresponding authors. USST was the first unit.
In modern society, the morbidity of cancer and bacterial infectious diseases are on the rise. At present, the main clinical methods for the treatment of these diseases include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, but these methods have certain limitations. With the continuous development of nanotechnology, functional nanomaterials with good biocompatibility, excellent physical and chemical properties have attracted great attention in the field of biomedical applications. These functional nanomaterials can not only perform special functions to treat diseases but also serve as biosensors for early non-invasive diagnosis. Among inorganic nanomaterials, bismuth chalcogenide (Bi2X3, X = O, S, Se, and Te) has low cost, high stability, controllable shape and size, bacteriostatic properties, strong X-ray attenuation coefficient and near-infrared (NIR) absorbance ability, unique photothermal conversion efficiency, good catalytic activity, long cycle half-life, and other characteristics. These properties not only make Bi2X3 have good application prospects in combination cancer therapy, multimodal imaging, antibacterial, and biosensing, but also open up new opportunities for future clinical applications.
In this review, they summarize the potential biological applications of Bi2X3 (Bi2O3, Bi2S3, Bi2Se3, and Bi2Te3) in bioimaging, monotherapy, synergistic therapy, and as biosensors for early diagnosis of diseases in anticancer and antibacterial fields (Fig. 1). First, they discuss the synthesis and modification of Bi2X3, including shape control, metal modification, and surface modification. Modified Bi2X3 can not only improve biocompatibility, but also actively target lesions and reduce damage to normal tissues. They can also combine the advantages of other materials to improve performance. Then, they focus on the application of Bi2X3 in cancer therapy, including computer tomography (CT) imaging, photoacoustic (PA) imaging, magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, fluorescence (FL) imaging techniques, the characteristics of single therapy, including chemotherapy, radiation therapy (RT), photothermal therapy (PTT), chemodynamic therapy (CDT), photodynamic therapy (PDT), sonodynamic therapy (SDT), gas therapy (GT), immunotherapy, as well as the progress and advantages of synergistic therapy. The application of Bi2X3 in the antibacterial and early diagnosis of diseases as a biosensor is also summarized. Finally, the prospects and challenges of Bi2X3 in biomedical applications are pointed out. At present, it is necessary to make a new summary of the latest development in this field. Most importantly, they hope to inspire and promote further research and development of Bi2X3 for biomedical applications based on the existing research results.
Link to the paper: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1hDKZ2Tz3-DzL
