Fluorescent Nanoprobes for Liquid Biopsy and Early Cancer Diagnosis

Early and accurate cancer detection remains one of the most consequential challenges in modern medicine, where earlier diagnosis can decisively change patient survival. Liquid biopsy has emerged as a minimally invasive and dynamic alternative to tissue sampling, allowing clinicians to interrogate circulating tumor cells (CTCs), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), microRNAs, extracellular vesicles, and protein biomarkers directly from blood, urine, or saliva. Yet these signatures are present at extremely low abundance against a complex biological background, placing severe demands on the sensitivity and specificity of any detection method.Fluorescent nanoprobes are uniquely positioned to meet this demand. Their high brightness, tunable emission, excellent photostability, and readily engineered surface chemistry make them powerful tools for capturing and reporting rare molecular targets. Advances across quantum dots, carbon dots, upconversion nanoparticles, aggregation-induced emission (AIE) materials, and second near-infrared window (NIR-II) fluorophores, together with single-molecule detection and nucleic-acid amplification-integrated sensing, are steadily redefining the limits of what liquid biopsy can achieve. The real opportunity lies at the interface of nanomaterial chemistry, ultrasensitive analytical science, and clinical oncology, where rigorous probe design meets validation in genuine patient samples.This Research Topic aims to gather high-quality research on the design, synthesis, and clinical application of fluorescent nanoprobes for liquid biopsy and early cancer diagnosis, bridging chemistry, materials science, analytical science, and translational medicine. We particularly welcome studies that connect fundamental probe design with quantitative performance and clinical relevance.Specific themes of interest include, but are not limited to:o Design and synthesis of novel fluorescent nanomaterials (quantum dots, carbon dots, upconversion nanoparticles, AIE probes, NIR-II fluorophores)o Single-molecule and single-particle fluorescence strategies for ultrasensitive biomarker detectiono Nucleic-acid amplification and signal-amplification approaches for CTCs, ctDNA, microRNAs, and extracellular vesicleso Multiplexed and quantitative detection of low-abundance protein and nucleic-acid targetso Integration of nanoprobes with microfluidic, biosensing, and point-of-care platformso NIR-II fluorescence imaging for in vivo tracking of early-stage lesionso Biocompatibility, stability, standardization, and the translational challenges of clinical adoptiono Artificial intelligence-assisted analysis of fluorescence signals for diagnostic modeling Topic editors: Chun-yang Zhang, MINGXUAN GAO Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85573/fluorescent-nanoprobes-for-liquid-biopsy-and-early-cancer-diagnosis