Bioengineering & Translational Medicine最新文献

{"title":"Light-activatable minimally invasive ethyl cellulose ethanol ablation: Biodistribution and potential applications","authors":"Jeffrey Yang,&nbsp;Chen-Hua Ma,&nbsp;John A. Quinlan,&nbsp;Kathryn McNaughton,&nbsp;Taya Lee,&nbsp;Peter Shin,&nbsp;Tessa Hauser,&nbsp;Michele L. Kaluzienski,&nbsp;Shruti Vig,&nbsp;Tri T. Quang,&nbsp;Matthew F. Starost,&nbsp;Huang-Chiao Huang,&nbsp;Jenna L. Mueller","doi":"10.1002/btm2.10696","DOIUrl":"10.1002/btm2.10696","url":null,"abstract":"<p>While surgical resection is a mainstay of cancer treatment, many tumors are unresectable due to stage, location, or comorbidities. Ablative therapies, which cause local destruction of tumors, are effective alternatives to surgical excision in several settings. Ethanol ablation is one such ablative treatment modality in which ethanol is directly injected into tumor nodules. Ethanol, however, tends to leak out of the tumor and into adjacent tissue structures, and its biodistribution is difficult to monitor in vivo. To address these challenges, this study presents a cutting-edge technology known as Light-Activatable Sustained-Exposure Ethanol Injection Technology (LASEIT). LASEIT comprises a three-part formulation: (1) ethanol, (2) benzoporphyrin derivative, which enables fluorescence-based tracking of drug distribution and the potential application of photodynamic therapy, and (3) ethyl cellulose, which forms a gel upon injection into tissue to facilitate drug retention. In vitro drug release studies showed that ethyl cellulose slowed the rate of release in LASEIT by 7×. Injections in liver tissues demonstrated a 6× improvement in volume distribution when using LASEIT compared to controls. In vivo experiments in a mouse pancreatic cancer xenograft model showed LASEIT exhibited significantly stronger average radiant efficiency than controls and persisted in tumors for up to 7 days compared to controls, which only persisted for less than 24 h. In summary, this study introduced LASEIT as a novel technology that enabled real-time fluorescence monitoring of drug distribution both ex vivo and in vivo. Further research exploring the efficacy of LASEIT is strongly warranted.</p>","PeriodicalId":9263,"journal":{"name":"Bioengineering & Translational Medicine","volume":"9 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/btm2.10696","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141608154","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cowpea mosaic virus intratumoral immunotherapy maintains stability and efficacy after long-term storage","authors":"Andrea Simms,&nbsp;Zhongchao Zhao,&nbsp;Edward Cedrone,&nbsp;Marina A. Dobrovolskaia,&nbsp;Nicole F. Steinmetz","doi":"10.1002/btm2.10693","DOIUrl":"10.1002/btm2.10693","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV) has demonstrated superior immune stimulation and efficacy as an intratumoral immunotherapy, providing a strong argument for its clinical translation. One important consideration for any new drug candidate is the long-term stability of the drug and its formulation. Therefore, our lab has evaluated the physical stability and biological activity, that is, anti-tumor potency, of formulations of CPMV in buffer (with and without a sucrose preservative) in multiple temperature conditions ranging from ultralow freezers to a heated incubator over a period of 9 months. We found that non-refrigerated temperatures 37°C and room temperature quickly led to CPMV destabilization, as evidenced by significant protein and RNA degradation after just 1 week. Refrigerated storage at 4°C extended physical stability, though signs of particle breakage and RNA escape appeared after 6 and 9 months. CPMV stored in frozen conditions, including −20°C, −80°C, and liquid N₂, remained intact and matched the characteristics of fresh CPMV throughout the duration of the study. The biological activity was evaluated using a murine dermal melanoma model, and efficacy followed the observed trends in physical stability: CPMV stored in refrigerated and warmer conditions exhibited decreased anti-tumor efficacy compared to freshly prepared formulations. Meanwhile, frozen-stored CPMV performed similarly to freshly purified CPMV, resulting in reduced tumor growth and extended survival. Data, therefore, indicates that CPMV stored long-term in cold or frozen conditions remains stable and efficacious, providing additional support to advance this powerful plant virus to translation.</p>","PeriodicalId":9263,"journal":{"name":"Bioengineering & Translational Medicine","volume":"9 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/btm2.10693","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141557129","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Advances in xenogeneic donor decellularized organs: A review on studies with sheep and porcine-derived heart valves","authors":"Muslum Suleyman Inal,&nbsp;Huseyin Avci,&nbsp;Shabir Hassan,&nbsp;Cihan Darcan,&nbsp;Su Ryon Shin,&nbsp;Ali Akpek","doi":"10.1002/btm2.10695","DOIUrl":"10.1002/btm2.10695","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Heart valve replacement surgeries are performed on patients suffering from abnormal heart valve function. In these operations, the problematic tissue is replaced with mechanical valves or with bioprosthetics that are being developed. The thrombotic effect of mechanical valves, reflecting the need for lifelong use of anticoagulation drugs, and the short-lived nature of biological valves make these two types of valves problematic. In addition, they cannot adapt to the somatic growth of young patients. Although decellularized scaffolds have shown some promise, a successful translation has so far evaded. Although decellularized porcine xenografts have been extensively studied in the literature, they have several disadvantages, such as a propensity for calcification in the implant model, a risk of porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV) infection, and a high xenoantigen density. As seen in clinical data, it is clear that there are biocompatibility problems in almost all studies. However, since decellularized sheep heart valves have not been tried in the clinic, a large data pool could not be established. This review compares and contrasts decellularized porcine and sheep xenografts for heart valve tissue engineering. It reveals that decellularized sheep heart valves can be an alternative to pigs in terms of biocompatibility. In addition, it highlights the potential advantages of bioinks derived from the decellularized extracellular matrix in 3D bioprinting technology, emphasizing that they can be a new alternative for the application. We also outline the future prospects of using sheep xenografts for heart valve tissue engineering.</p>","PeriodicalId":9263,"journal":{"name":"Bioengineering & Translational Medicine","volume":"9 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/btm2.10695","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141545815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Integrating routine blood biomarkers and artificial intelligence for supporting diagnosis of silicosis in engineered stone workers","authors":"Daniel Sanchez-Morillo,&nbsp;Antonio León-Jiménez,&nbsp;María Guerrero-Chanivet,&nbsp;Gema Jiménez-Gómez,&nbsp;Antonio Hidalgo-Molina,&nbsp;Antonio Campos-Caro","doi":"10.1002/btm2.10694","DOIUrl":"10.1002/btm2.10694","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Engineered stone silicosis (ESS), primarily caused by inhaling respirable crystalline silica, poses a significant occupational health risk globally. ESS has no effective treatment and presents a rapid progression from simple silicosis (SS) to progressive massive fibrosis (PMF), with respiratory failure and death. Despite the use of diagnostic methods like chest x-rays and high-resolution computed tomography, early detection of silicosis remains challenging. Since routine blood tests have shown promise in detecting inflammatory markers associated with the disease, this study aims to assess whether routine blood biomarkers, coupled with machine learning techniques, can effectively differentiate between healthy individuals, subjects with SS, and PMF. To this end, 107 men diagnosed with silicosis, ex-workers in the engineered stone (ES) sector, and 22 healthy male volunteers as controls not exposed to ES dust were recruited. Twenty-one primary biochemical markers derived from peripheral blood extraction were obtained retrospectively from clinical hospital records. Relief-<i>F</i> features selection technique was applied, and the resulting subset of 11 biomarkers was used to build five machine learning models, demonstrating high performance with sensitivities and specificities in the best case greater than 82% and 89%, respectively. The percentage of lymphocytes, the angiotensin-converting enzyme, and lactate dehydrogenase indexes were revealed, among others, as blood biomarkers with significant cumulative importance for the machine learning models. Our study reveals that these biomarkers could detect a chronic inflammatory status and potentially serve as a supportive tool for the diagnosis, monitoring, and early detection of the progression of silicosis.</p>","PeriodicalId":9263,"journal":{"name":"Bioengineering & Translational Medicine","volume":"9 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/btm2.10694","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141496102","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessing the impact of long-term storage on the quality and integrity of biological specimens in a reproductive biobank","authors":"Zhao Wang,&nbsp;Changming Zhang,&nbsp;Xin Zhang,&nbsp;Yuehong Bian,&nbsp;Yongzhi Cao","doi":"10.1002/btm2.10692","DOIUrl":"10.1002/btm2.10692","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Biobanks hold a pivotal role in facilitating translational and clinical research endeavors. However, the effects of prolonged storage on frozen blood samples analytes are not well defined yet. The aim of this study was to investigate the long-term stability of the quality of DNA, RNA, and endocrine markers within blood samples amassed from the biobank over the past 11 years. The results show that the overall quality and integrity of DNA remained not significantly influenced. However, RNA integrity and purity displayed substantial deterioration as storage duration increased, to ensure high-quality RNA for downstream analyses, advised to prioritize using blood samples stored within 3 years. Furthermore, the study examined the influence of storage time on endocrine markers. Through repeated measures ANOVA and linear regression analyses, it was evident that storage duration significantly influenced the levels of endocrine markers. This insight aids researchers in selecting appropriate markers for their investigations and augments the precision and dependability of results when dealing with long-term stored samples.</p>","PeriodicalId":9263,"journal":{"name":"Bioengineering & Translational Medicine","volume":"9 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/btm2.10692","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141461595","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"AAVS1-targeted, stable expression of ChR2 in human brain organoids for consistent optogenetic control","authors":"Soojung Hong,&nbsp;Juhee Lee,&nbsp;Yunhee Kim,&nbsp;Eunjee Kim,&nbsp;Kunyoo Shin","doi":"10.1002/btm2.10690","DOIUrl":"10.1002/btm2.10690","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Self-organizing brain organoids provide a promising tool for studying human development and disease. Here we created human forebrain organoids with stable and homogeneous expression of channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) by generating <i>AAVS1</i> safe harbor locus-targeted, ChR2 knocked-in human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), followed by the differentiation of these genetically engineered hPSCs into forebrain organoids. The resulting ChR2-expressing human forebrain organoids showed homogeneous cellular expression of ChR2 throughout entire regions without any structural and functional perturbations and displayed consistent and robust neural activation upon light stimulation, allowing for the non-virus mediated, spatiotemporal optogenetic control of neural activities. Furthermore, in the hybrid platform in which brain organoids are connected with spinal cord organoids and skeletal muscle spheroids, ChR2 knocked-in forebrain organoids induced strong and consistent muscle contraction upon brain-specific optogenetic stimulation. Our study thus provides a novel, non-virus mediated, preclinical human organoid system for light-inducible, consistent control of neural activities to study neural circuits and dynamics in normal and disease-specific human brains as well as neural connections between brain and other peripheral tissues.</p>","PeriodicalId":9263,"journal":{"name":"Bioengineering & Translational Medicine","volume":"9 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/btm2.10690","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141367710","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Combination of polymeric micelle formulation of TGFβ receptor inhibitors and paclitaxel produces consistent response across different mouse models of Triple-negative breast cancer","authors":"Natasha Vinod,&nbsp;Duhyeong Hwang,&nbsp;Sloane Christian Fussell,&nbsp;Tyler Cannon Owens,&nbsp;Olaoluwa Christopher Tofade,&nbsp;Thad S. Benefield,&nbsp;Sage Copling,&nbsp;Jacob D. Ramsey,&nbsp;Patrick D. Rädler,&nbsp;Hannah M. Atkins,&nbsp;Eric E. Livingston,&nbsp;J. Ashley Ezzell,&nbsp;Marina Sokolsky-Papkov,&nbsp;Hong Yuan,&nbsp;Charles M. Perou,&nbsp;Alexander V. Kabanov","doi":"10.1002/btm2.10681","DOIUrl":"10.1002/btm2.10681","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is notoriously difficult to treat due to the lack of targetable receptors and sometimes poor response to chemotherapy. The transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) family of proteins and their receptors (TGFRs) are highly expressed in TNBC and implicated in chemotherapy-induced cancer stemness. Here, we evaluated combination treatments using experimental TGFR inhibitors (TGFβi), SB525334 (SB), and LY2109761 (LY) with paclitaxel (PTX) chemotherapy. These TGFβi target TGFR-I (SB) or both TGFR-I and TGFR-II (LY). Due to the poor water solubility of these drugs, we incorporated each of them in poly(2-oxazoline) (POx) high-capacity polymeric micelles (SB-POx and LY-POx). We assessed their anticancer effect as single agents and in combination with micellar PTX (PTX-POx) using multiple immunocompetent TNBC mouse models that mimic human subtypes (4T1, T11-Apobec and T11-UV). While either TGFβi or PTX showed a differential effect in each model as single agents, the combinations were consistently effective against all three models. Genetic profiling of the tumors revealed differences in the expression levels of genes associated with TGFβ, epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), TLR-4, and Bcl2 signaling, alluding to the susceptibility to specific gene signatures to the treatment. Taken together, our study suggests that TGFβi and PTX combination therapy using high-capacity POx micelle delivery provides a robust antitumor response in multiple TNBC subtype mouse models.</p>","PeriodicalId":9263,"journal":{"name":"Bioengineering & Translational Medicine","volume":"9 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/btm2.10681","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141266293","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Single immunization with an influenza hemagglutinin nanoparticle-based vaccine elicits durable protective immunity","authors":"Shiho Chiba,&nbsp;Tadashi Maemura,&nbsp;Kathryn Loeffler,&nbsp;Steven J. Frey,&nbsp;Chunyang Gu,&nbsp;Asim Biswas,&nbsp;Masato Hatta,&nbsp;Yoshihiro Kawaoka,&nbsp;Ravi S. Kane","doi":"10.1002/btm2.10689","DOIUrl":"10.1002/btm2.10689","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Vaccination is the most effective strategy to combat influenza. Ideally, potent and persistent vaccine effects would be induced with a single vaccine dose. Here, we designed a virus-like particle (VLP)-based vaccine presenting multiple copies of the influenza hemagglutinin (HA) from A/Puerto Rico/8/1934 (PR8HA-VLP) and examined its immunogenicity and protective efficacy in ferrets. Serum-neutralizing antibodies were effectively induced against the homologous virus at 3-week post-vaccination with a single dose of PR8HA-VLP with or without adjuvants. When the single-immunized ferrets were challenged with the homologous virus, virus replication in the nasal mucosa was significantly reduced. Long-term monitoring of serum titers revealed that after adjuvanted vaccination with PR8HA-VLP, neutralizing antibodies were retained at similar levels 20- to 183-week post-vaccination, although a 4- to 8-fold titer decline was observed from 3- to 20-week post-vaccination. Boost immunization at 183 weeks after the first immunization elicited higher neutralizing antibody titers than those at 3 weeks after the initial immunization in most of the animals. These results confirm that nanoparticle-based vaccines are a promising approach to effectively elicit durable multiyear neutralizing antibody responses against influenza viruses.</p>","PeriodicalId":9263,"journal":{"name":"Bioengineering & Translational Medicine","volume":"9 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/btm2.10689","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141272129","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Propionate-producing engineered probiotics ameliorated murine ulcerative colitis by restoring anti-inflammatory macrophage via the GPR43/HDAC1/IL-10 axis","authors":"Guangbo Kang,&nbsp;Xiaoli Wang,&nbsp;Mengxue Gao,&nbsp;Lina Wang,&nbsp;Zelin Feng,&nbsp;Shuxian Meng,&nbsp;Jiahao Wu,&nbsp;Zhixin Zhu,&nbsp;Xinran Gao,&nbsp;Xiaocang Cao,&nbsp;He Huang","doi":"10.1002/btm2.10682","DOIUrl":"10.1002/btm2.10682","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic and unspecific inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract, and current treatment options often fail to maintain long-term remission. Studies have shown that propionate level is reduced in fecal samples from patients with IBD. Propionate can ameliorate IBD through intestinal epithelial cells and immune regulation, but its effects on the inflammatory microenvironment and macrophage differentiation have not been widely studied. To address this, we constructed an engineered propionate-producing probiotic (EcNP3) to achieve sustained restoration of propionate levels in the gut and increase its bioavailability. DSS-induced experimental intestinal inflammation model was used to evaluate the effect of EcNP3 on improving the intestinal mucosal barrier and increasing the proportion of anti-inflammatory macrophages. It was found that EcNP3 exhibited a restorative effect on the depletion of peritoneal anti-inflammatory macrophages (F4/80hiCD11bhi) and significantly improved the expression level of IL-10. Simultaneously, the expression of IL-1β, IL-6, and CXCL1 was downregulated while inhibiting apoptosis of tissue-resident macrophages ex vivo. Further investigation revealed that EcNP3 regulates IL-10 expression through G protein-coupled receptor 43 and histone deacetylase. Furthermore, EcNP3 significantly inhibited the protein expression of HDAC1 and promoted the histone acetylation level of cells. Finally, EcNP3 significantly improved DSS-induced colitis in mice by increasing mucus production and reducing inflammatory infiltration. Our results suggest that the engineered live biotherapeutic product EcNP3 is a safe and potently efficacious treatment for IBD, which defines a novel strategy in IBD therapy through macrophage IL-10 signaling.</p>","PeriodicalId":9263,"journal":{"name":"Bioengineering & Translational Medicine","volume":"9 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/btm2.10682","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141159638","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Enabling next-generation therapies: A foreword to a special issue on nanotechnology in medicine","authors":"Josué Sznitman","doi":"10.1002/btm2.10678","DOIUrl":"10.1002/btm2.10678","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;The Spring of 2022 coincided with a long-awaited return of the conference series on Nanotechnology in Medicine (Calabria, Italy), chaired on this occasion by Dr Milica Radisic (University of Toronto) and Dr Victor Shahin (University of Münster) under the auspices of Engineering Conference International (ECI). To celebrate the main highlights of such event, the special issue of &lt;i&gt;Bioengineering &amp; Translational Medicine&lt;/i&gt; (Volume X, Issue X) brings together a curated collection of stimulating contributions from plenary, keynote, and invited speakers of the conference under the unifying theme of “enabling next-generation therapies.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The third edition of this conference provided an intimate yet lively scientific forum whose purpose expanded upon the scope of the past two previous editions of the conference series (see, e.g., &lt;i&gt;Bioengineering &amp; Translational Medicine&lt;/i&gt; Vol. 4, Issues 2 &amp; 3, 2019) in discussing recent research developments in the aforementioned field. Among the leading topics emphasized in this 2022 edition of the conference were (i) a deepening of the mechanistic understanding of biodistribution of systematically targeted nanoparticles (NPs), (ii) exploring the effects of mechanical environments of tissues and cells, (iii) the use of tissue and &lt;i&gt;organ-on-chip&lt;/i&gt; (OoC) models in the studies of NP distribution and toxicity, (iv) generating an improved mechanistic understanding of the factors necessary to control in vivo NP targeting; and (v) exploiting such understanding to generate highly effective nanotechnologies for the early detection, imaging, and treatment of human diseases.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In this short editorial, we briefly take the opportunity to highlight a few contributions of interest that mark the special issue. Resonating with the timeliness of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lu et al. (https://doi.org/10.1002/btm2.10581) discuss recent advances in &lt;i&gt;heart-on-a-chip&lt;/i&gt; platforms for elucidating SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis, including the potential mechanisms that drive heart failure whereby viral infection induces myocardial dysfunction, with an outlook toward more advanced models for disease modeling and pharmacological discovery. Continuing in the area of OoC, Spitz et al. (https://doi.org/10.1002/btm2.10604) provide an overview of recent OoC advances in the field of neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) directed toward non-invasive sensing strategies encompassing electrical, electrochemical and optical sensors. Motivated by the lack of insufficient predictive validity of animal-based disease models for clinical trials, the authors discuss promising on- and integrable off-chip sensing OoC strategies applicable to NDD research to advance the translational value of microphysiological systems in preclinical settings.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In parallel, Ramezani et al. (https://doi.org/10.1002/btm2.10652) discuss the potential of dye supramolecular assemblies for broad applications such as photoacoustic and fluorescence imaging, as well","PeriodicalId":9263,"journal":{"name":"Bioengineering & Translational Medicine","volume":"9 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2024-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/btm2.10678","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141096715","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}