Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most normally primary malignant bone cancer in adolescents. Due to their analogous X-ray attenuation properties, healthy bones and malignancies with iodine enhancement cannot be distinguished by conventional computed tomography (CT). As one kind of spectral CT, dual-energy CT (DECT) offers multiple functions for material separation and cancer treatments. Herein, bismuth sulfide (Bi₂S₃) nanorods (NRs) were synthesized as special contrast agents (CAs) for DECT, which have superior imaging properties than clinical iodine CAs. At the same time, the high photothermal conversion rates of Bi₂S₃ NRs can be used for DECT-guided photothermal therapy (PTT) to destroy OS and inhibit tumor growth under the guidance of DECT imaging. Importantly, DECT imaging real-timely monitored that PTT could accelerate the diffusion of Bi₂S₃ NRs in the tumor, obtaining detailed information on the internal distribution of nanomaterials in tumors around the bone to avoid injury to normal tissues by PTT. Overall, the proposed strategy of DECT imaging-guided PTT appears enormous promise for bone disease treatment.

Wound delayed healing or non-healing has seriously affected patients’ quality of life and has been a significant economic burden for public health systems worldwide. Excess reactive oxygen species (ROS) play important roles for impeding the process of wound healing. Herein, we report a hydrogel system containing low-valence-state molybdenum nanomaterials (Mo hydrogel) for wound healing by scavenging the detrimental ROS. Both in vitro and in vivo results demonstrate that the synthesized Mo hydrogel can accelerate wound healing, promote angiogenesis, and stimulate the expression of growth factors. Since the molybdenum is an essential element for the survival of all organisms, such novel Mo-hydrogel has the great potential to be clinically translated for wound healing.

Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) has been more attractive to carry out oncology treatments in recent years. However, imaging-guided sonodynamic therapeutic nanomedicine is still a shortage in SDT development. In this work, we designed and fabricated an organic SDT system based on combination of 1,2,4,5-tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)-porphyrin (TCPP) and gadolinium(III) (Gd³⁺) creatively (Gd-PPNs). Gd³⁺ was traditionally used to be T₁-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent and TCPP was initiatively a fluorescence imaging organic media. Therefore, these new designed nanoparticles have immense potential to integrate MRI and FLI to visualize the Gd-PPNs accumulating and keeping in tumor for a long time, which could be applied for guidance of SDT on tumors in clinical practice. Importantly, excellent SDT efficiency under imaging guidance was verified both in vitro and in vivo in this work. Our findings suggested that Gd-PPNs, as innovative imaging and therapy combinational nanomedicines, were successfully synthesized and were proved to possess excellent imaging-guided sonodynamic therapeutic efficacy. Moreover, this new designed sonosensitizer had great biocompatibility to avoid unnecessary biotoxicity. Overall, this strategy shed light on the MRI/FLI-guidance and successfully induced pancreatic tumor growth inhibition by sonodynamic therapy.