Recently, materials science journal of Advanced Materials reported the latest scientific research cooperation of diagnosis and treatment about glyco-based two-dimensional materials targeting by research teams from Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica (SIMM) and East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST). 

The early diagnosis and treatment of cancer has been deeply concerned by the academic field. Based on previous construction of a two-dimensional composite diagnostic material with graphene oxide, the researchers develop a simple 2D glycosheet for targeted cell imaging and intracellular production of ROS. The glycosheet formed by the supramolecular self-assembly between fluorescent glycoprobes and 2D MoS2 could effectively and selectively interact with a target cell that highly expresses a receptor that recognizes the ligand precursor of the material composite. The 2D material also showed an ability to produce ROS (singlet oxygen) in a target cell rather than control cells with minimal receptor expression. This research enables the simple development of 2D TMD-based theranostic materials that can produce ROS in a target-specific manner, and also facilitates the basic research on cell biology where ROS needs to be released in a target cell. 

This research was accomplished under the corporation between LI Jia & ZANG Yi’s (SIMM) and CHEN Guo-Rong & HE Xiao-Peng’s (ECUST) groups. This research was supported by the 973 project, the Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Science and Technology Major Projects, the Shanghai Science and Technology Development Funds, and the Shanghai Rising-Star Program. 

Full text：http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201602748/full 

（Credit：Dr LI Jia’s group）