Multifunctional Nanoparticles Self-Assembled from Small Organic Building Blocks for Biomedicine

Supramolecular self-assembly shows significant potential to construct responsive materials. By tailoring the structural parameters of organic building blocks, nanosystems can be fabricated, whose performance in catalysis, energy storage and conversion, and biomedicine has been explored. Since small organic building blocks are structurally simple, easily modified, and reproducible, they are frequently employed in supramolecular self-assembly and materials science. The dynamic and adaptive nature of self-assembled nanoarchitectures affords an enhanced sensitivity to the changes in environmental conditions, favoring their applications in controllable drug release and bioimaging. Here, recent significant research advancements of small-organic-molecule self-assembled nanoarchitectures toward biomedical applications are highlighted. Functionalized assemblies, mainly including vesicles, nanoparticles, and micelles are categorized according to their topological morphologies and functions. These nanoarchitectures with different topologies possess distinguishing advantages in biological applications, well incarnating the structure-property relationship. By presenting some important discoveries, three domains of these nanoarchitectures in biomedical research are covered, including biosensors, bioimaging, and controlled release/therapy. The strategies regarding how to design and characterize organic assemblies to exhibit biomedical applications are also discussed. Up-to-date research developments in the field are provided and research challenges to be overcome in future studies are revealed.