Seite - (000352) - in Biomedical Chemistry: Current Trends and Developments

nanomedicines for cancer treatment have revolutionized the research field of cancer and technology due to the possibility to precisely synthetize nanoparticulate systems with variable size, shape and physicochemical properties (Paulo, 2011). Nanomedicine can be applied to actively or passively target the tumor tissue (Krishnan, 2014). In passive targeting, the physicochemical properties of the drug nanocarrier are molded so that it escapes from the immune system and accumulates in the target tissue. Active targeting involves the attachment of an antibody, carrier protein or other ligand to the nanovector, so that it has affinity to a cell receptor or biomarker (Danhier, 2010). Targeted nanoparticulate imaging agents offer new opportunities for accurate cancer diagnosis. Due to the highly engineerable nanomaterials, nanoparticles offer great advantages such as increased sensitivity to contrast and the avidity of binding and cleavage specificity (Gautier, 2013). Considering the nanoparticles and their ability to reach a specific location and generate detectable signals, these nanoparticles can also be used to study the biophysical interactions (Sumer, 2008). Drug development and imaging nanomedicines are thus interconnected, due to the advantages of the application and non-invasiveness in high yield imaging studies. All imaging modalities can be used in drug studies to provide anatomical, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic information (Wang, 2010). Table 3.5.1: Nanomedicines approved by one or more regulatory bodies. Reprinted from (Wang, 2013).