Medical nanotechnology and the development of methods for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer

Abstract

Nanotechnology is the design and assembly of submicroscopic devices called nanoparticles, which are 1–100 nm in diameter. The application of nanotechnology for the diagnosis and treatment of human disease has been a growing interest in nanomedicine. In recent review, nanoscale differnt platforms has been present for being used as tools for different application including cancer diagnosis and treatment, detection of tumor angiogenesis, nanoimaging, blood-brain barrier, and drug delivery. Nanoscale platforms is including polymeric nanoparticles, polymeric nanoconjugates, carbon nanotubes, peptides and proteins, superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, endohedral metallofullerene nanoparticles, fullerenes, nanodiamonds, micelles, and dendrimers. In total, nanoscale platforms present unique same properties including biocompatible, biodegradable, functionalization and alteration of surface chemistry, chemically stable in environment, less immunogenic, effective permeation through cell membranes, a long shelf life, little toxicity, delivering optimal drug concentrations to the site of treatment, reduce adverse effects on healthy tissue, dissolving a broad variety of poorly soluble pharmaceuticals, and specifically interacting with certain receptors overexpressed by cancer cells as targeting molecules for drug delivery. The information provided in this review is important in regards to the safe and widespread use of nanoscale platforms particularly in the biomedicine field.