Theranostics is a type of emerging biomedical technology that integrates diagnostics with therapeutics, thus possesses significant biomedical impact on various diseases, especially cancer, in terms of fundamental research and clinical applications. A cancer theranostic agent is usually composed of a diagnostic component, which allows for cancer imaging and detection, and a therapeutic component, which allows for cancer therapy. Through the integration of diagnosis and therapy in a single nanoparticle, several novel merits are expected, including accurate localization of tumor area, in situ therapy, and real-time monitoring of therapeutic progress. In this paper, we firstly introduce the development of cancer theranostics and analyze their unique advantages for cancer diagnosis and treatment. We then focuse on the latest progress on the construction of various cancer theranostic agents. In the end, we discusse the challenges and possible future directions of cancer theranostics.

The study of the underlying mechanism of aggregation-induced emission (AIE), design and synthesis of novel AIE molecules and their application in various fields of daily life are the current hot research topics. According to AIE mechanism of restriction of intramolecular motions, a variety of AIE probes with "turn-on" sensing feature have been designed to provide much lower background and higher signal reliability, which are particularly attractive and suitable for use in biology. Since the unbound AIE probes have a low background, the use of the AIE bioprobes also has the advantage of not requiring washing steps, which greatly saves the operation time and eliminates the loss of the samples. The formed AIE aggregates have excellent photostability and resistance to photobleaching during detection, allowing long-term tracking and monitoring. AIE bioprobes have been designed and applied to fields of biomolecular detection, cellular structure imaging, bacterial imaging, cell tracking, angiography, in vivo tumor imaging and therapy, etc. With the recently achieved numerous results, herein, we first briefly introduce the origin of AIE, then we discuss the working mechanism of AIE and the construction of AIE probes. Finally we summarize the recent works of AIE in different aspects of bioimaging, disease diagnosis and treatment.

We put forward an influential concept of "molecular elements" to appreciate the composition of nucleic acids from a new perspective. The nucleic acids that exhibit different functions are designed based on the functional requirement. They are constructed by phosphodiester bonds formation from various "molecular elements" that have different bases, thus achieving a variety of functions such as specific molecular recognition, catalysis, and intelligent response. In this article we present an overview of representative research results of our laboratory upon functional nucleic acid molecules, including the screening and application of nucleic acid aptamers as macromolecular medicine; the synthesis and evolution of artificial bases; the mechanism of DNAzymes; molecular beacons, molecular motors and their applications in biosensing, biosynthesis, biopharmaceutical research. Moreover, we discuss the challenges and future research directions in the field of functionalized nucleic acid.

Natural mechanical devices carry out critical tasks for cell function, including DNA replication, intracellular transport, ion pumping and cell motility. Inspired by nature, artificial devices and machines on the molecular scale have been bottom-up designed, constructed, and operated. The unique chemical and physical properties enable DNA molecules to serve as building blocks to construct artificial, machine-like nanostructures. DNA nanostructures are characteristic of the uniform sizes and shapes, precise spatial addressability and reconfigurable mechanical operation as well as excellent biocompatibility, showing great promise for drug delivery. After integrating specific functional moieties on addressable structures, therapeutic DNA nanorobots have been constructed, which can deliver cargoes to target diseased cells or region, responsively release the loaded drugs and enhance the therapeutic efficacy. The molecular cargoes attached to DNA-based nanocarriers are usually three types:small molecular drugs, functional oligonucleotides, and therapeutic proteins. In this review, recent advances of DNA nanocarriers and therapeutic nanorobots for intelligent drug delivery are summarized. The challenges and future perspectives regarding functional DNA materials are discussed.

Due to their unique optical, magnetic, electrical, and thermal properties, nanomaterials can be utilized to generate different types of detection signals, amplify the intensity of detection signal, and simplify diagnostic procedure, indicating their great potential in the development of various nanomaterials based in vitro diagnostic technologies. In this review, we first introduce unique properties of typical nanomaterials of quantum dots, gold nanoparticles and iron oxide nanoparticles commonly used in in vitro diagnostic applications, and then discuss the current advances of diagnostic systems by utilizing their optical, magnetic, electrical, and thermal properties for the detection of nucleic acids, proteins, small molecules, bacteria and viruses. Finally, we summarize the challenges of large-scale synthesis and surface modification of the nanoparticles, automatic detection and clinical evaluation. We hope this review will help drive the development of nanomaterials based in vitro diagnostic technology and its related fields.

In recent years, apllications of magnetic nanomaterials in molecular imaging have attracted much attention. The superparamagnetic nanoparticle is the most popular magnetic nanoparticle due to its good T₂-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent property. With the improvement of preparation and surface modification method, the superparamagnetic iron oxide particles (SPION) has been applied to imaging contrast, stem cell labeling and drug/gene delivery. This article reviews the combined applications of SPION in imaging contrast and MRI guided treatment. It also points out that many kinds of magnetic nanomaterials used for biomedical applications have low imaging contrast and specificity in vivo and have negative effecton living organism, which hinder the clinical application of SPION. Combined with the current public concerns and development of nanomedicine preparation methods, the preparation of SPION with good MRI contrast effect, high biocompatibility, disease area targeting and clinical conversion potential is a challenge to deal with in the new generation of magnetic nano-probes.

Cancer, as the one of the major diseases that threaten human health is an urgent challenge to be addressed. The design and application of functional nanomaterials and related systems for cancer treatment is an emerging research field, mainly associated with drug delivery systems, vaccine, diagnosis and imagining. To date, some of these outcomes could be seen in the clinical and preclinical studies, which provides the possibility for real-time monitoring, accurate evaluation and designation of personalized treatment. Here, we review the recent progress of utilizing nanotechnology in the field of cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, theranostics and clinical transformation. The prospects and challenges of this field are also discussed.

Nanosized drug delivery systems (NDDS) have shown enormous potential in cancer therapy, as they can increase the bioavailability of poor water-soluble drugs, improve the drug distribution in tumor tissues, promote intracellular uptake as well as drug release inside tumor cells. The rational design of NDDS by utilizing the physiological properties of tumor may suppress the non-specific interactions between NDDS and normal tissue, and increase their tumor specificity and therapeutic performance. In this review, we briefly summarize the recent progress of passively-, actively-and biomimetically-targeting NDDS for cancer therapy.

Nanomedicine has emerged to be a promising platform for cancer treatment with reduced side effect and increased therapeutic effect. In recent decades, with the advances in nanobiotechnology, much progress has been achieved in the development and clinical translation of cancer nanomedicines. Until now, several types of nanomedicines have been approved for cancer treatment in clinical and more candidates are in clinical trial. However, it is still a challenge for nanomedicines to treat tumors due to the complexity and heterogeneity nature of tumors. Herein, we summarize the current status and progress of cancer nanomedicines in clinical translation as well as discuss the challenge and future perspective.