Abstract

Nanoparticle-mediated light-activated therapies, such as photodynamic therapy and photothermal therapy, are earnestly being viewed as efficient interventional strategies against several cancer types. Theranostics is a key hallmark of cancer nanomedicine since it allows diagnosis and therapy of both primary and metastatic cancer using a single nanoprobe. Advanced in vivo diagnostic imaging using theranostic nanoparticles not only provides precise information about the location of tumor/s but also outlines the narrow time window corresponding to the maximum tumor-specific drug accumulation. Such information plays a critical role in guiding light-activated therapies with high spatio-temporal accuracy. Furthermore, theranostics facilitates monitoring the progression of therapy in real time. Herein, we provide a general review of the application of theranostic nanoparticles for in vivo image-guided light-activated therapy in cancer. The imaging modalities considered here include fluorescence imaging, photoacoustic imaging, thermal imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, X-ray computed tomography, positron emission tomography, and single-photon emission computed tomography. The review concludes with a brief discussion about the broad scope of theranostic light-activated nanomedicine.

Highlights

  • Over the past several years, the concept of theranostic nanoparticles, i.e., a single nanoprobe containing at least one diagnostic and one therapeutic functionality, has gained widespread attention [1,2]

  • This review focuses on the use of such multifunctional theranostic nanoformulations in image-guided light-activated therapies and real-time therapy monitoring

  • Zhang et al have shown the use of acid-triggered aggregation of peptide-conjugated gold nanoparticles for multimodal (CT, photoacoustic, and photothermal) image-guided photothermal therapy (PTT)

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Summary

Introduction

Over the past several years, the concept of theranostic nanoparticles, i.e., a single nanoprobe containing at least one diagnostic and one therapeutic functionality, has gained widespread attention [1,2] Such nanoparticles offer two attractive biomedical benefits, namely, image-guided therapy and real-time therapy monitoring [3,4]. Multifunctional nanoparticles offer the attractive possibility of targeted, image-guided therapy using a single nanoprobe with both diagnostic and therapeutic functions [5,6,7,8]. These functions can be inherent to the nanoparticle, owing to their novel physical properties at the nanoscale, or can be incorporated via physical/chemical means [9]. We have focused only on the in vivo phototheranostic applications of these nanoformulations

Optical Imaging and Phototherapy
Theranostic Gold Nanostructures
Theranostic Carbon Nanostructures
Theranostic 2D Nanostructures
MRI and Phototherapy
Nanophototheranostics Using Gadolinium MRI
Iron Oxide Nanoparticles with Photosensitizers
Dopamine-Based Nanoparticles for Multimodal Theranostics
Radio Imaging-Guided Phototherapy
Toxicological Aspects of Nanoparticles
Findings
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