The Next Generation of Smart Gold Nanobeacons: Nanotheranostics is Ready for Prime Time

Revisiting the ‘One Material Fits All’ Rule for Cancer Nanotherapy

“…With one single local application using hydrogel scaffolds embedded with a two-pair Förster fluorescence resonance energy transfer/nanosurface energy transfer (FRET/NSET) gold nanobeacons , the authors were able to overcome drug resistance by detecting and silencing a multidrug resistance protein (MRP1), before chemotherapeutic drug delivery in vivo . Interestingly, these nanobeacons served as an on/off molecular nanoswitches triggered by the increased MRP1 expression within the tumor tissue microenvironment [32]. Once inside and in contact with the mRNA, the DNA hairpin (which forms the nanobeacons) flips out of its zipped configuration and latches on to the target mRNA, blocking its action.…”

An Appeal to the Global Health Community for a Tripartite Innovation: An “Essential Diagnostics List,” “Health in All Policies,” and “See-Through 21st Century Science and Ethics”

“…Diagnostics spanning a wide range of biotechnologies, including genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and nanotechnology, are emerging as companion tests to innovative medicines (Conde and Artzi, 2015;Higdon et al, 2015). The 19 th WHO Model List of Essential Medicines brings to the fore innovative medicines for hepatitis C, breast cancer, leukemia, and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (World Health Organization, 2015).…”

Influence of gold nanoparticles on wound healing treatment in rat model: Photobiomodulation therapy

“…Metal-based nanomaterial is currently getting much attention from researchers for nanomedicine applications such as drug delivery, diagnostic and imaging, tissue engineering and photodynamic therapy; due to their size, structural properties, and function as an antioxidant [22][23][24][25][26][27]. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have been a great source of interest due to their novel characteristics such as size-related electronic [28], optical (quantum size effect) [29], chemical, and magnetic properties that are potentially useful in biological applications [30][31][32][33]. AuNPs has potent antioxidative effects in quenching free radicals such as DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-l-picrylhydrazyl), OH (hydroxyl), H 2 O 2 (hydrogen peroxide), and NO (nitric oxide) [34][35][36].…”