Nanomaterials as Promising Theranostic Tools in Nanomedicine and Their Applications in Clinical Disease Diagnosis and Treatment

Abstract

In recent decades, with the rapid development of nanotechnology, nanomaterials have been widely used in the medical field, showing great potential due to their unique physical and chemical properties including minimal size and functionalized surface characteristics. Nanomaterials such as metal nanoparticles and polymeric nanoparticles have been extensively studied in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases that seriously threaten human life and health, and are regarded to significantly improve the disadvantages of traditional diagnosis and treatment platforms, such as poor effectiveness, low sensitivity, weak security and low economy. In this review, we report and discuss the development and application of nanomaterials in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases based mainly on published research in the last five years. We first briefly introduce the improvement of several nanomaterials in imaging diagnosis and genomic sequencing. We then focus on the application of nanomaterials in the treatment of diseases, and select three diseases that people are most concerned about and that do the most harm: tumor, COVID-19 and cardiovascular diseases. First, we introduce the characteristics of nanoparticles according to the excellent effect of nanoparticles as delivery carriers of anti-tumor drugs. We then review the application of various nanoparticles in tumor therapy according to the classification of nanoparticles, and emphasize the importance of functionalization of nanomaterials. Second, COVID-19 has been the hottest issue in the health field in the past two years, and nanomaterials have also appeared in the relevant treatment. We enumerate the application of nanomaterials in various stages of viral pathogenesis according to the molecular mechanism of the complete pathway of viral infection, pathogenesis and transmission, and predict the application prospect of nanomaterials in the treatment of COVID-19. Third, aiming at the most important causes of human death, we focus on atherosclerosis, aneurysms and myocardial infarction, three of the most common and most harmful cardiovascular diseases, and prove that nanomaterials could be involved in a variety of therapeutic approaches and significantly improve the therapeutic effect in cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, we believe nanotechnology will become more widely involved in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases in the future, potentially helping to overcome bottlenecks under existing medical methods.

Enhancement of Vancomycin Potential against Pathogenic Bacterial Strains via Gold Nano-Formulations: A Nano-Antibiotic Approach

“…Furthermore, the ability of nanoparticles to interact with bacterial cellular systems substantially participates in the enhanced therapeutic efficacy of the treatment [11]. In addition, nanoparticles have been considered as plausible tools for the diagnosis of various clinical diseases [12]. Moreover, the success of nanoparticle-based therapeutic strategy depends on their safety assessment [13], large-scale production, and applicability for clinical trials [14].…”

Bioinspired Hydrogels as Platforms for Life-Science Applications: Challenges and Opportunities

“…An intensive development of the hydrogels in the future supposes complex activities, involving deep research and advanced concepts in physico-chemistry of polymers, materials science, biology, medicine, pharmacy, and biotechnology. Smart nanomaterials with unique characteristics, as promising theranostic tools for both diagnosis and therapy, will revolutionize medicine [298].…”

The Effect of Capping Agents on Gold Nanostar Stability, Functionalization, and Colorimetric Biosensing Capability

“…Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are attractive for use in nanomedicine due to their facile synthetic methods, sensitivity, specificity, possibilities for tailoring their charge, hydrophilicity, and functionality through surface chemistries [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. AuNPs come in a variety of morphologies that are tuneable for biomedical purposes.…”

“…Capping agents—enzyme conjugates—are essential considerations in biosensor preparations. In many cases, biocompatible capping agents are commonly used [ 1 , 2 , 22 , 23 , 24 ]. Capping agents may improve enzyme stability, shield enzymes from undesired interactions, and prolong shelf-life [ 23 , 25 , 26 ].…”