Engineered Nanostructures for Sonothermal Therapy

Abstract

Sonothermal therapy (STT) has become increasingly attractive recently as a noninvasive, safe, and nonionizing methodology. STT, as a newly emerging heat‐enabled therapeutic approach, can rely on built‐in bubble cavitation and thermal energy‐electron recombination of sonothermal agents (STAs) activated by ultrasound (US) irradiation. In this domain, STT‐enabled nanomedicine is considered a potential treatment for abnormal cell killing and normal cell renewing, which addresses the drawbacks of nonspecific heating in conventional microbubbles, side effects, and poor tissue penetration of available thermal‐based therapies. Herein, a comprehensive review on the efficiency of STT in tumor ablation, infection therapy, and tissue regeneration is presented. Moreover, this review focuses on the benefits of STT as a therapeutic hot topic that can be used for nonantibiotic treatments, noninvasive heat‐activated tissue regeneration, and highly efficient local cancer therapy. In addition, rational design of STAs, mechanistic innovations, and prospects of STT will also be provided.