Page - (000395) - in Biomedical Chemistry: Current Trends and Developments

The abovementioned nanoparticulate systems are revolutionary for the diagnostic and imaging fields, but other materials such as gold nanomaterials, carbon nanotubes and silica nanoparticles have also shown light absorbing properties, that when scattered or emited, yield specific types of diagnostic/therapeutic signals, e.g. under ultrasound, heat, Raman or fluorescence signals. These types of nanoparticles may function as theranostic nanoparticles on their own and/or can be associated with other molecules for increases in targeting and selectivity (Choi, 2012). 3.5.6 Conclusions and Future Prospects Nanotechnology has provided the opportunity to explore new clues for the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases, in particular, cancer. With the advances of nanomedicine, the direct use of nanoparticles in prevention, diagnostic and treatment of cancer, has become a reality. In the past decades, the use of nanotechnology for simultaneous drug delivery, imaging and diagnostics has grown exponentially. There is a great evolution of the biological and physical resources to improve the use of nanoparticles for finding the best treatment for cancer. The controlled size and multifunctionality are the main reasons for the growing applications of nanomedicines as anticancer agents. Nanoparticles can synergistically improve the immunostimulative effect of antigens and other immunogenic molecules. However, using nanoparticles as anticancer immune adjuvants and delivery of immunostimulative biomolecules still suffers from several important drawbacks, including the problems associated with the scaling-up of the system, expensive preparation processes, and limitations for producing sterile products Tremendous and fast advancements are being achieved to produce better and improved nanosystems able to provide precise information for a better understanding of the tumor diseases, as well as for facilitating medical decisions in the clinic, adding therapeutic functions to the novel nanoplatforms that can, in the near future, change the practical course of the treatment and diagnosis of cancer. The bench-to-