oa Editorial [The Expectancy of Nanomaterials in Biomedical Application (Guest Editor: Ching-Li Tseng)]

In a rapidly developing field of nanotechnology, it is difficult to predict when this field will arrive at what mature endpoint. Today, nanomaterials are making significant advances in three broad areas: novel materials synthesis, superior cell imaging, and accurate biological assays. The interdisciplinary research involved in nanomaterials for biomedical application, such as drug delivery, cellular imaging and diagnostic applications etc. are promptly rising and prospering. This thematic issue covers the original articles reporting various types of nanomaterials, such as nano-fibers, nanoparticles for biosensor, molecular image and nanocarriers for drug transportation. In the view of nanomaterials for drug delivery, C. L. Tseng et al. show that the chemodrug, cisplatin, encapsulated in gelatin nanoparticles could be slowly released to cause toxicity reducing and have a superior anticancer effect in subcutaneous mice model. For a lethal infection disease, leishmaniasis (Kala-Azar) treatment, N. C. Mishra reports that electrospuned nanofibers with Amphotericin B loading could be highly promising for the treatment of Kala-Azar via controlled release effect. J. I. Kim et al. describe a ring open method to prepare a novel tri-copolymers, polyester-PPG-polyester, and shows that micelles could be formed by the tri-copolymers and may be a potential hydrophobic drug carrier. R. Moriyama et al. synthesized metylated PLL-g-Dex copolymer (MPLL-g-Dex); they investigated the interaction of copolymer with DNA and described unique properties of MPLL-g-Dex-DNAs which were linked by not only ionic but also hydrophobic interactions. To maintain the function of primary hepatocytes culture, two different engineered type I collagen, nano-sized one and anti-oxidative one were tested in the report of C. W. Lan's study. The result shows that nano-sized collagen could facilitate cell aggregation and formation of hepatic spheroids; the addition of anti-oxidative collagen could facilitate the maintenance of the gene expression of Cytochrome P450 of hepatocytes. S. M. Kuo et al. also investigate how type I and type II collagen nano-spheres influence hepatocytes and chondrocytes cultures. In this work, hepatocytes and chondrocytes cultured with collagen nano-spheres could rapidly form cell pellets, maintaining their in vivo-like morphologies and specific functions....