Gold Nanoparticles; Potential Nanotheranostic Agent in Breast Cancer: A Comprehensive Review with Systematic Search Strategy.

Abstract

Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease typically prevalent among women and is the second-largest cause of death worldwide. Early diagnosis is the key to minimize the cancer-induced complication, however, the conventional diagnostic strategies have been sluggish, complex, and, to some extent, non-specific. Therapeutic tools are not so convenient and side effects of current therapies offer the development of novel theranostic tool to combat this deadly disease. This article aims to summarize the advances in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer with gold nanoparticles (GNP or AuNP). A systematic search was conducted in the three popular electronic online databases including PubMed, Google Scholar, and Web of Science, regarding GNP as breast cancer theranostics. Published literature demonstrated that GNPs tuned with photosensitive moieties, nanomaterials, drugs, peptides, nucleotide, peptides, antibodies, aptamer, and other biomolecules improve the conventional diagnostic and therapeutic strategies of breast cancer management with minimum cytotoxic effect. GNP derived diagnosis system assures reproducibility, reliability, and accuracy cost-effectively. Additionally, surface-modified GNP displayed theranostic potential even in the metastatic stage of breast cancer. Divergent strategies have shown the theranostic potential of surface tuned GNPs against breast cancer even in the metastatic stage with minimum cytotoxic effects both in vitro and in vivo.