Abstract
Nanomaterials have been widely applied in the field of cancer imaging and therapy. However, conventional nanoparticles including micelles and liposomes may suffer the issue of dissociation in the circulation. In contrast, crosslinked nanogels the structures of which are covalently crosslinked have better physiological stability than micelles and liposomes, making them more suitable for cancer theranostics. In this review, we summarize recent advances in crosslinked nanogels for cancer imaging and therapy. The applications of nanogels in drug and gene delivery as well as development of novel cancer therapeutic methods are first introduced, followed by the introduction of applications in optical and multimodal imaging, and imaging-guided cancer therapy. The conclusion and future direction in this field are discussed at the end of this review.
Highlights
Cancer is one of the major threats to human lives all over the world [1]
The cellular uptake of nanogels was studied, and the results indicated that γ-polyglutamic acid (γ-PGA)-[(Au0 )200 -PEI·NH2 -mPEG] NGs had a much higher cellular uptake than [(Au0 )200 -γ-PGA] NPs, which may be attributed to the softness and admirable fluidity of nanogels
The nanogels usually have a hydrodynamic size of tens to hundreds of nanometers, making them effectively accumulate in tumor sites
Summary
Cancer is one of the major threats to human lives all over the world [1]. Traditional cancer treatment process divides diagnosis and therapy into different procedures, which is time consuming and requires high cost [2,3]. Among numerous materials for phototheranostics, nanomaterials have shown great promise and been widely applied in the field of cancer imaging and therapy [19,20]. As most organic nanoparticles are micelles and liposomes, they may dissociate when their concentration decrease lower than the critical micelle concentration [36] Such a feature makes nanoparticles unstable in harsh conditions such as blood circulation, which further leads to the burst release of encapsulated drugs or contrast agents [37,38]. To overcome such drawbacks, crosslinked nanogels have been chosen in the development of phototheranostic systems. A brief summary is given with the discussion of current status and future perspectives in this field
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