Nanotheranostics for Cancer Therapy and Detection: State of the Art

Abstract

: Nanotheranostics, an approach of combining both diagnosis and therapy, is one of the latest advances in cancer therapy particularly. Nanocarriers designed and derived from inorganic materials such as like gold nanoparticles, silica nanoparticles, magnetic nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes have been explored for tremendous applications in this area. Similarly, nanoparticles composed of some organic material alone or in combination with inorganic nano-cargos have been developed pre-clinically and possess excellent features desired. Photo-thermal therapy, MRI, simultaneous imaging and delivery, combination chemotherapy with diagnosis are a few of the known methods exploring cancer therapy and detection as organ/tissue/molecular/sub-cellular level as well. This review comprises an overview of the recent reports meant for nanotheranostics purposes. Targeted cancer nanotheranostics have been included for understating tumor microenvironment or cell specific targeting approach employed. A brief account of various strategies is also included for the readers highlighting mechanism of cancer therapy.

Laser Synthesized Core-Satellite Fe-Au Nanoparticles for Multimodal In Vivo Imaging and In Vitro Photothermal Therapy

“…The time constant of suspension cooling = 318 s was used for calculation of photothermal conversion efficiency coefficient (η) ( Figure 3 e,f). Fe-Au@PAA particles show η = 38%; thus, their efficiency exceeds those reported for gold nanoparticles (10.2%) [ 38 ], gold nanoshells (13%) [ 34 ], other iron-oxide nanoparticles with modified surface (13.1–35.7%) [ 39 ], and is comparable to another Fe-Au core-shell nanocomposites (42.6%) [ 17 ] evaluated under NIR irradiation.…”

“…Thus, owing to the strong extinction of Fe-Au at the plasmon resonance band, the photothermal properties of NPs under irradiation by a green light from a 532 nm laser source were evaluated firstly. Green lasers have been extensively used in surgery for photocoagulation [ 34 ] and tested for cancer therapy with nanoparticles [ 35 ]. Considering relatively low intensities of 532 nm lasers used in clinics (100–750 mW) [ 36 ] and high absorption of visible light by tissues, Fe-Au@PAA NPs were exposed to irradiation with 100 mW laser power.…”

The Potential of Nanomedicine to Unlock the Limitless Applications of mRNA

“…The term "nanomedicine" thus comprises formulations in the nanometer scale (i.e., nanoformulations) composed of organic materials such as lipids or polymers, or inorganic materials such as metals, that can be used to deliver small molecules or biomolecules, namely proteins, peptides or nucleic acids. Nanomedicine can be used for therapeutic purposes [41], but it also has an application in diagnostics and regenerative medicine [42] With respect to the specific application of nanomedicine in gene delivery, all the research performed in the last 30 years has resulted in safe and effective delivery platforms for nucleic acids, such as antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), small interfering RNAs (siRNA), DNA and more recently mRNA, using different types of strategies such as Gal-NAc conjugates, and different delivery vehicles such as Adeno-Associated Virus (AAD) and more recently LNPs, as recently reviewed in this article [43]. Despite this great effort, at present there is only one nanoformulation in the market for siRNA delivery, Onpattro ® ; however, many others are undergoing clinical trials, and more genetic nanomedicines are expected to be seen in the near future [43].…”

Assessment of iron nanoparticle distribution in mouse models using ultrashort‐echo‐time MRI

“…These attributes render them highly promising for various therapeutic (e.g. magnetic particle heating 1 , drug delivery 2 , blood purification 3 ) and diagnostic applications 4 . Especially, their utilization as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been frequently investigated and led to several clinically approved products 5 .…”

“…Among the broad spectrum of nanoparticles available for biomedical applications, iron‐based nanoparticles have attracted significant attention due to their unique magnetic properties and excellent biocompatibility. These attributes render them highly promising for various therapeutic (eg magnetic particle heating, 1 drug delivery, 2 blood purification 3 ) and diagnostic applications 4 . In particular, their utilization as contrast agents for MRI has been frequently investigated and led to several clinically approved products 5 .…”