Abstract
Conventional treatments fail to completely eradicate tumor or bacterial infections due to their inherent shortcomings. In recent years, photothermal therapy (PTT) has emerged as an attractive treatment modality that relies on the absorption of photothermal agents (PTAs) at a specific wavelength, thereby transforming the excitation light energy into heat. The advantages of PTT are its high efficacy, specificity, and minimal damage to normal tissues. To this end, various inorganic nanomaterials such as gold nanostructures, carbon nanostructures, and transition metal dichalcogenides have been extensively explored for PTT applications. Subsequently, the focus has shifted to the development of polymeric PTAs, owing to their unique properties such as biodegradability, biocompatibility, non-immunogenicity, and low toxicity when compared to inorganic PTAs. Among various organic PTAs, polyaniline (PANI) is one of the best-known and earliest-reported organic PTAs. Hence, in this review, we cover the recent advances and progress of PANI-based biomaterials for PTT application in tumors and bacterial infections. The future prospects in this exciting area are also addressed.
Highlights
Hyperthermia is a medical treatment approach that involves the exposure of the body tissue to higher temperatures in an effort to tackle various diseases such as cancer, bacterial infection, inflammatory diseases, etc., via eradication of disease cells or pathogens through the denaturation of proteins or disintegration of membranes [1,2,3,4]
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This review summarized the recent advancements in the research on PANI that have been made to improve its applicability
Summary
Hyperthermia ( known as thermotherapy or thermal therapy) is a medical treatment approach that involves the exposure of the body tissue to higher temperatures in an effort to tackle various diseases such as cancer, bacterial infection, inflammatory diseases, etc., via eradication of disease cells or pathogens through the denaturation of proteins or disintegration of membranes [1,2,3,4]. In the last two decades, the advancements in the nanotechnology have led to the development of variety of inorganic PTAs with strong absorption in NIR region including nanostructures of noble metals such as Au, Ag or Pt, transition metal oxide or sulfide nanoparticles, carbon-based nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes and graphene [11,12,13]. All these inorganic PTAs exhibited excellent photothermal therapeutic efficacies in in vitro and preclinical animal experiments; their poor biocompatibility, non-degradability, and long-term toxicity severely hinder their prospects in clinical applications. This review mainly discusses the recent advancements in the development of PANI-based biomaterials for photothermal ablation of tumors and pathogens
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