Nanotheranostics: Emerging Strategies for Early Diagnosis and Therapy of Brain Cancer

Abstract

Nanotheranostics have demonstrated the development of advanced platforms that can diagnose brain cancer at early stages, initiate first-line therapy, monitor it, and if needed, rapidly start subsequent treatments. In brain nanotheranostics, therapeutic as well as diagnostic entities are loaded in a single nanoplatform, which can be further developed as a clinical formulation for targeting various modes of brain cancer. In the present review, we concerned about theranostic nanosystems established till now in the research field. These include gold nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, magnetic nanoparticles, mesoporous silica nanoparticles, quantum dots, polymeric nanoparticles, upconversion nanoparticles, polymeric micelles, solid lipid nanoparticles and dendrimers for the advanced detection and treatment of brain cancer with advanced features. Also, we included the role of three-dimensional models of the BBB and cancer stem cell concept for the advanced characterization of nanotheranostic systems for the unification of diagnosis and treatment of brain cancer. In future, brain nanotheranostics will be able to provide personalized treatment which can make brain cancer even remediable or at least treatable at the primary stages.

Recent advances in the development of nanoparticles for multimodality imaging and therapy of cancer

“…Increasing drug delivery remains an important goal especially of the central nervous system (CNS) malignancies, which are often protected by the blood‐brain barrier (BBB). Although the local environment around brain malignancies may have a disruption in the local BBB, getting chemotherapeutic agents to cross the BBB remains a challenge . Many nanotheranostic strategies have been developed to increase drug delivery to CNS malignancies by increasing BBB penetration or circumventing the BBB altogether.…”

Nanotechnology: A non-invasive diagnosis and therapeutic tool for brain disorders

“…They are easy to prepare by adopting standard techniques, can provide target specific action or recognition by surface functionalization with specific ligands. Moreover, the radiolabelled or fluorescent probes or other nano-sized devices offer a significant degree of monitoring and produce more precise results (Sonali et al, 2018). Also, they are biocompatible and can be used as a component of various biotechnological devices, DNA, protein and can offer ease of permeation across the biological membranes like BBB.…”

“…The brain is the most delicate, complex and vital organ of the human body. It regulates all the responses and stores information (Sonali et al, 2018). Our brain makes us feel, sense and be aware of every little sense and stimulusoutside as well as inside the body.The body has its protective measures to shield the brain from any *Corresponding author.…”

“…One such approach is nanotechnology, the engineered nano-sized tools that regulate and manipulate the physicochemical prospects of any material or device at the molecular level (Huang et al, 2017). Research proves that nanotechnology is a useful tool that can replace or improve the presently available drug therapies and modify the diagnostic aids by using molecular imaging and modeling (Fan and Yeh, 2014;Silva et al, 2017;Sonali et al, 2018). The nanotherapeutics utilize various nanocarrier systems like liposome, nanoparticle, nanogels, dendrimer, nanotube, nanofiber, etc.…”

Multifunctional Polymeric Nanoplatforms for Brain Diseases Diagnosis, Therapy and Theranostics

“…The best known brain diseases include cancers, neurodegenerative disorders, HIV encephalopathy, and inflammatory diseases [3,4]. Most cancer-related deaths in patients below the age of 35 have been reported as arising from brain cancer [5][6][7]. The different kinds of brain tumors are neuroepithelial, meningeal, primary CNS lymphomas, tumors of the sellar region, and metastatic [8][9][10].…”