Mesoporous carbon biomaterials

Nano-biotechnology provides highly efficient and versatile strategies to improve the diagnostic precision and therapeutic efficiency of serious diseases. The development of new biomaterial systems provides great opportunities for the successful clinical translation of nano-biotechnology for personalized biomedicine to benefit patients. As a new inorganic material system, mesoporous carbon biomaterials (MCBs) combine the merits of a mesoporous nanostructure and carbonaceous composition, showing superior qualities compared with traditional mesoporous silica and other carbon-based nanosystems, such as graphene, carbon nanotubes, and fullerene. Thus, this review focuses on the rational design, chemical synthesis, and biomedical applications of MCBs. The synthetic strategies for MCBs, especially mesoporous carbon nanoparticles (MCNs), are summarized, and several representative biomedical applications of MCBs are discussed in detail. MCBs perform well for on-demand drug-release, photothermal therapy, synergistic therapy, fluorescent labeling of cancer cells, bio-adsorption of in vivo toxic pathogenic substances, peptide separation, and biosensing. The preliminary biosafety issue of MCBs is also briefly discussed. Finally, the critical issues and challenges facing the future development of MCBs for clinical translation are considered. There is great promise for MCBs to reach clinical translations for biomedical applications based on their unique nanostructure, composition, and biocompatibility once some critical issues are fully addressed.