Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, Qassim University, Buraydah, 51452, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al-Azhar University, Assiut, 71524, Egypt.
Int J Nanomedicine. 2022 May 2;17:1951-1970. doi: 10.2147/IJN.S357980. eCollection 2022.
Despite the massive advancements in the nanomedicines and their associated research, their translation into clinically-applicable products is still below promises. The latter fact necessitates an in-depth evaluation of the current nanomedicines from a clinical perspective to cope with the challenges hampering their clinical potential. Quantum dots (QDs) are semiconductors-based nanomaterials with numerous biomedical applications such as drug delivery, live imaging, and medical diagnosis, in addition to other applications beyond medicine such as in solar cells. Nevertheless, the power of QDs is still underestimated in clinics. In the current article, we review the status of QDs in literature, their preparation, characterization, and biomedical applications. In addition, the market status and the ongoing clinical trials recruiting QDs are highlighted, with a special focus on the challenges limiting the clinical translation of QDs. Moreover, QDs are technically compared to other commercially-available substitutes. Eventually, we inspire the technical aspects that should be considered to improve the clinical fate of QDs.
尽管纳米医学及其相关研究取得了巨大进展，但将其转化为临床应用产品的情况仍不尽如人意。这一事实需要从临床角度深入评估当前的纳米医学，以应对阻碍其临床潜力的挑战。量子点 (QD) 是基于半导体的纳米材料，具有许多生物医学应用，如药物输送、活体成像和医学诊断，此外还有医学以外的其他应用，如太阳能电池。然而，QD 的强大功能在临床上仍未得到充分重视。在本文中，我们综述了 QD 在文献中的研究现状、制备、表征和生物医学应用。此外，还重点介绍了 QD 的市场现状和正在进行的临床试验招募情况，特别关注限制 QD 临床转化的挑战。此外，还将 QD 与其他市售替代品进行了技术比较。最终，我们提出了一些技术方面的建议，以改善 QD 的临床应用前景。
