Abstract
Cancer theranostics is a new concept of medical approach that attempts to combine in a unique nanoplatform diagnosis, monitoring and therapy so as to provide eradication of a solid tumor in a non-invasive fashion. There are many available solutions to tackle cancer using theranostic agents such as photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT) under the guidance of imaging techniques (e.g., magnetic resonance—MRI, photoacoustic—PA or computed tomography—CT imaging). Additionally, there are several potential theranostic nanoplatforms able to combine diagnosis and therapy at once, such as gold nanoparticles (GNPs), graphene oxide (GO), superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) and carbon nanodots (CDs). Currently, surface functionalization of these nanoplatforms is an extremely useful protocol for effectively tuning their structures, interface features and physicochemical properties. This approach is much more reliable and amenable to fine adjustment, reaching both physicochemical and regulatory requirements as a function of the specific field of application. Here, we summarize and compare the most promising metal- and carbon-based theranostic tools reported as potential candidates in precision cancer theranostics. We focused our review on the latest developments in surface functionalization strategies for these nanosystems, or hybrid nanocomposites consisting of their combination, and discuss their main characteristics and potential applications in precision cancer medicine.
Highlights
Cancer theranostics is an emerging field of nanotechnology that combines therapy and diagnosis in a single smart tool, providing real-time monitoring of treatment progress and efficacy [1,2]
Among the most promising theranostic tools proposed in recent literature panorama, gold nanoparticles (GNPs), superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs), carbon nanodots (CDs) and graphene oxide (GO) have shown intriguing characteristics exploitable in biomedicine and especially in cancer theranostics
Gold and iron oxide hybrid nanoparticles (HNPs) synthesized by thermal decomposition were bio-functionalized with a single chain antibody, scFv, that binds to the A33 antigen present on colorectal cancer cells [136]
Summary
Cancer theranostics is an emerging field of nanotechnology that combines therapy and diagnosis in a single smart tool, providing real-time monitoring of treatment progress and efficacy [1,2]. Bearing in mind that theranostic nanostructure features are typically tailorable with a high grade of precision during the synthesis stage, the uniformity of the starting material plays a critical role, the reason why bottom-up approaches are generally preferred addressing the production of most reliable tools, and are concurrently more suitable for translational theranostic research [40,41,42] In this context, this review displays a comparative overview of the current state of the art, examining the characteristics and potentials of some of the most promising classes of theranostic nanomaterials, aiming to give a panoramic view that might be helpful for the researcher approaching the study of functionalized theranostic nanotools in cancer precision medicine
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