Abstract
Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have generated keen interest among researchers in recent years due to their excellent physicochemical properties. In general, GNPs are biocompatible, amenable to desired functionalization, non-corroding, and exhibit size and shape dependent optical and electronic properties. These excellent properties of GNPs exhibit their tremendous potential for use in diverse biomedical applications. Herein, we have evaluated the recent advancements of GNPs to highlight their exceptional potential in the biomedical field. Special focus has been given to emerging biomedical applications including bio-imaging, site specific drug/gene delivery, nano-sensing, diagnostics, photon induced therapeutics, and theranostics. We have also elaborated on the basics, presented a historical preview, and discussed the synthesis strategies, functionalization methods, stabilization techniques, and key properties of GNPs. Lastly, we have concluded this article with key findings and unaddressed challenges. Overall, this review is a complete package to understand the importance and achievements of GNPs in the biomedical field.
Highlights
The advent of nanotechnology has increased our capability to engineer the physicochemical properties of materials at the nano-scale to enable their use in various biomedical applications.[1,2,3] Out of all the nanomaterials, gold nanoparticles (GNPs) and silver nanoparticles are the most explored nanostructures for biomedical applications.[4,5] Among the two aforementioned metal nanostructures, the scope of nano-silver is limited in comparison to Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) due to its higher cytotoxicity and low colloidal stability.[6,7] The physical and chemical properties of GNPs are largely different from those of bulk gold.[8]
GNPs have been used since ancient times for many applications ranging from imparting color to glasses to treatment of complicated mental disorders
GNPs have signi cantly improved the quality of modern bio-imaging techniques like photo-acoustic tomography (PAT), PET, X-ray CT, surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), and Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
Summary
The advent of nanotechnology has increased our capability to engineer the physicochemical properties of materials at the nano-scale to enable their use in various biomedical applications.[1,2,3] Out of all the nanomaterials, gold nanoparticles (GNPs) and silver nanoparticles are the most explored nanostructures for biomedical applications.[4,5] Among the two aforementioned metal nanostructures, the scope of nano-silver (in biomedical applications) is limited in comparison to GNPs due to its higher cytotoxicity and low colloidal stability.[6,7] The physical and chemical properties of GNPs are largely different from those of bulk gold.[8]. The band gap of nanoparticles increases with decreasing particle/cluster size.[21] When the size of nanoscale gold approaches the Fermi wavelength ($0.5 nm), the energy levels become discrete enough to affect their electronic properties.[22,23] Most of the biomedical engineering applications of gold nanoparticles are based on their unique size dependent optical properties.[22,24] The scope of the GNPs in biomedical applications is vast enough to cover molecular level cellular imaging to the treatment of cancer-like diseases.[22,25,26,27,28,29,30] Likewise, theranostic applications (bioimaging + therapy) of gold based nanostructures are attracting interest in many clinical applications.[31,32,33] The potential of GNPs in biomedical applications is promising but there are still many issues (e.g., immunogenicity and cytotoxicity of the GNPs) that need to be addressed in order to realize their full potential.[34,35,36] use of chemical/biomolecule functionalized GNPs is an effective way to overcome the above-mentioned issues.[37,38,39]. We have provided up-to-date information on the progress of GNPs for biomedical applications
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