Nanoparticle-based theranostic agents

Abstract

Theranostic nanomedicine is emerging as a promising therapeutic paradigm. It takes advantage of the high capacity of nanoplatforms to ferry cargo and loads onto them both imaging and therapeutic functions. The resulting nanosystems, capable of diagnosis, drug delivery and monitoring of therapeutic response, are expected to play a significant role in the dawning era of personalized medicine, and much research effort has been devoted toward that goal. A convenience in constructing such function-integrated agents is that many nanoplatforms are already, themselves, imaging agents. Their well developed surface chemistry makes it easy to load them with pharmaceutics and promote them to be theranostic nanosystems. Iron oxide nanoparticles, quantum dots, carbon nanotubes, gold nanoparticles and silica nanoparticles, have been previously well investigated in the imaging setting and are candidate nanoplatforms for building up nanoparticle-based theranostics. In the current article, we will outline the progress along this line, organized by the category of the core materials. We will focus on construction strategies and will discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with this emerging technology.

Nanoparticle-cored dendrimers: functional hybrid nanocomposites as a new platform for drug delivery systems

“…Their well-developed surface chemistry makes it easy to load them with pharmaceutics and promote them to be theranostic nanosystems. 71,72 In vivo and in vitro MRI measurements showed that the contrast enhancement properties of the dendronized NPs were higher than those obtained with commercial polymer-coated NPs (Figure 3). 22 Figure 3: a) Synthetic scheme of NCDs, b) Spin echo T2 weighted axial images sequentially acquired before and after an injection of 650 µl of NCDs at 7T with a small animal dedicated MRI (Biospin -Brücker®).…”

Applications of gold nanorods in biomedical imaging and related fields

“…Theranostic nanoparticles, which combine both therapeutic and diagnostic capabilities in one dose, have great promising in disease treatment [71,72]. GNRs have been developed as theranostic nanoparticles in several studies.…”

Medical imaging in personalised medicine: a white paper of the research committee of the European Society of Radiology (ESR)

“…New materials and techniques are facilitating the production of various nano-particles suitable both as (targeted) imaging probe and drug carrier. Currently various types of nanoparticles are being investigated as versatile tools for theranostics purposes [26,27]. A major advantage of nanoparticles for theranostics would be the high payload of both therapeutic agent and imaging probe that can be delivered to the target tissue.…”