Metal Sulfide Semiconductor Nanomaterials and Polymer Microgels for Biomedical Applications

Abstract

The development of nanomaterials with therapeutic and/or diagnostic properties has been an active area of research in biomedical sciences over the past decade. Nanomaterials have been identified as significant medical tools with potential therapeutic and diagnostic capabilities that are practically impossible to accomplish using larger molecules or bulk materials. Fabrication of nanomaterials is the most effective platform to engineer therapeutic agents and delivery systems for the treatment of cancer. This is mostly due to the high selectivity of nanomaterials for cancerous cells, which is attributable to the porous morphology of tumour cells which allows nanomaterials to accumulate more in tumour cells more than in normal cells. Nanomaterials can be used as potential drug delivery systems since they exist in similar scale as proteins. The unique properties of nanomaterials have drawn a lot of interest from researchers in search of new chemotherapeutic treatment for cancer. Metal sulfide nanomaterials have emerged as the most used frameworks in the past decade, but they tend to aggregate because of their high surface energy which triggers the thermodynamically favoured interaction. Stabilizing agents such as polymer and microgels have been utilized to inhibit the particles from any aggregations. In this review, we explore the development of metal sulfide polymer/microgel nanocomposites as therapeutic agents against cancerous cells.

Metal Sulfide Nanoparticles for Imaging and Phototherapeutic Applications

“…Although M x S y -NPs have been researched as theranostic nanoplatforms over a decade, only a handful of reviews are highlighting recent developments and challenges in this field [ 9 , 10 , 20 ]. Metal sulfide NPs, specifically, transition metal dichalcogenides, have an array of desirable properties such as electronic band structure, tunable bandgap, luminescence, and Raman scattering, which can be tuned as per the end applications.…”

“…In addition to properties found at the nanoscale, M x S y -NPs also exhibit favorable properties such as light conversion, Fenton catalysis, immune activation and radiation enhancement [ 8 , 9 ]. The lower electronegativity of sulfur in comparison to oxygen makes M x S y -NPs naturally versatile in comparison to highly exploited metal oxide ones [ 10 ]. The versatility of M x S y -NPs becomes evident by the fact that they can be successfully used for various applications including different types of imaging and therapy, often alone or in combination with other materials to enhance their intended application [ 11 ].…”