Nanomedicines built on advanced biomaterials are emerging as promising solutions for cancer therapy due to their potential for faster clinical translation. Selecting appropriate animal or in vitro models is critical to accelerating this translation while improving affordability and accessibility. This scoping review examines the preclinical model landscape for Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC), a malignancy projected to become the second leading cause of cancer-related death by 2030. Early diagnosis and timely treatment substantially reduce reliance on surgical intervention and improve survival, underscoring the need for models that support development of early-diagnostic tools and less invasive nanomedicine-based therapies. This review classifies preclinical models ranging from immunocompromised to non-immunocompromised rodents (mice, rats, hamsters) and porcine systems according to their suitability for studying pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) of nanomedicines, and for analyzing mutagenesis, tumor growth, engraftment, metastasis, and tumor heterogeneity. Chemotherapeutic agents and nanodrug delivery systems are compared across these models, with chemically induced rat models identified as particularly robust for PK/PD evaluation. We further assess emerging in vitro organoid models derived from cell lines, primary human tissue, xenografts, and organoid-rodent hybrid systems for their capacity to accelerate drug and nanomedicine screening. Our analysis indicates that in vitro organoid models combined with rat models offer the most efficient platform for demonstrating nanomedicine efficacy, safety, and ability to overcome therapeutic resistance in PDAC. It also highlight opportunities to integrate organoid systems with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning ( AI/ML) approaches to further accelerate translational timelines, offering a roadmap for aligning model selection with specific clinical endpoints in future nanomedicine development.
Chronic and complex wounds exist within heterogeneous, unstable clinical environments characterized by irregular geometry, persistent exudate, bleeding, and strict time constraints at the bedside. Despite advances in biomaterials, skin substitutes, and bioprinting technologies, most wound-healing strategies are still developed and validated under controlled laboratory conditions that fail to capture these realities, contributing to limited clinical translation. In-situ bioprinting reframes wound treatment as an on-site biofabrication problem, enabling the direct deposition of bioactive constructs onto living tissue at the point-of-care. However, current literature remains largely material- and technology-centered, with no unified framework that links real wound constraints to printable design parameters. In this mini-review, we establish a clinically driven design-rule framework that systematically maps on-wound constraints to key printable parameters, including gelation kinetics, viscosity windows, spatial patterning, and degradation behavior. By synthesizing recent experimental and translational studies, we map these parameters to clinically relevant outcomes such as rapid hemostasis, infection control, angiogenesis, and long-term tissue remodeling. We further identify wound-edge heterogeneity as one important but underappreciated constraint among several interacting factors that shape design requirements and outline translational and regulatory challenges unique to point-of-care biofabrication. By shifting the focus from material composition to constraint-driven design logic, this work provides a practical framework for developing clinically robust in-situ bioprinting strategies.
Myocardial infarction (MI) remains a major cause of heart failure and mortality worldwide. Herein, an electrically conductive hydrogel was developed by incorporating puerarin-functionalized carbon nanotubes (CNT-Pu) into a gelatin methacryloyl (Gel-MA) matrix for potential MI repair. CNT-Pu was dispersed in the Gel-MA precursor solution, followed by photo-crosslinking to form the Gel-MA/CNT-Pu hydrogel. The resulting hydrogel exhibited a porous microstructure, enhanced electrical conductivity, favorable mechanical properties and elastic recovery, and sustained puerarin release over 28 days. In vitro, the Gel-MA/CNT-Pu hydrogel exhibited favorable cytocompatibility with both L929 fibroblasts and H9c2 cardiomyoblasts, supporting its preliminary biological compatibility for myocardial applications. In a rat MI model, Gel-MA/CNT-Pu treatment was associated with reduced inflammatory cell infiltration and attenuation of fibrotic scar formation. Quantitative histological analysis demonstrated a significantly smaller fibrotic area and greater left ventricular wall thickness in the Gel-MA/CNT-Pu group than in the control group, suggesting that Gel-MA/CNT-Pu provided a multifunctional biomaterial strategy combining mechanical support, electrical conductivity, and localized drug delivery to attenuate adverse structural remodeling after MI. Further investigations were required to establish its functional cardiac benefits and long-term safety.
Carotid artery stenting is an established endovascular option for carotid stenosis, but comparative clinical evidence for individual stent designs remains limited. Full-text reassessment confirmed five independent trials that randomized patients specifically to a stent device or stent-design strategy. Only two trials (204 patients; four standardized events) provided fully verified arm-level data for stroke, transient ischemic attack, or all-cause death within 30 days. The device evidence formed a sparse chain without a closed loop, and each direct comparison was informed by one trial. Bayesian network meta-analysis, treatment ranking, and node-splitting were therefore not performed. Direct estimates were imprecise and did not establish superiority of any stent or structural class. The animal findings describe exploratory local vascular responses to geometry-matched miniature nitinol stents under controlled experimental conditions and do not validate a clinical device hierarchy. The chronological relationship between the clinical evidence review and animal study design is acknowledged as a limitation.
Antimicrobial resistance has emerged as a major global healthcare challenge owing to the rapid rise in multidrug-resistant bacterial infections and the declining effectiveness of conventional antibiotics. Antimicrobial peptides have gained considerable attention as alternative therapeutic agents because of their broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity, membrane-targeting mechanisms, immunomodulatory functions, and reduced susceptibility to resistance development. The clinical translation of antimicrobial peptides is limited by enzymatic degradation, poor stability, rapid clearance, systemic toxicity, and inefficient infection site targeting. In this context, metal-organic frameworks have emerged as effective nanocarriers for precision antimicrobial peptide delivery owing to their tunable porosity, high loading capacity, surface functionalization, and stimuli-responsive behavior. This review comprehensively discusses the molecular mechanisms of antimicrobial peptides, engineering strategies for metal-organic framework-based delivery systems, and toxin-responsive nanocarrier designs for selective antimicrobial therapy. Different toxin-responsive approaches, including lipid bilayer-disruptable systems, membrane-coated toxin-decoy metal-organic frameworks, phospholipase-triggered platforms, virulence-factor-amplified systems, and dual-responsive nanocarriers, are highlighted for their ability to achieve site-specific antimicrobial peptide release in pathogen-rich microenvironments. Furthermore, recent in vitro , in vivo , and preclinical studies demonstrating therapeutic efficacy against multidrug-resistant and biofilm-associated infections are reviewed. Toxin-responsive metal-organic framework nanocarriers represent an advanced precision nanomedicine strategy with considerable potential for combating drug-resistant bacterial infections.
