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| EDITORIAL |
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| Year : 2017 | Volume
: 5
| Issue : 2 | Page : 33-34 |
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Nanotheranostics: For P4 medicine
Suchetha N Malleshi
Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Sparkle Dental Clinic, Tirupur, Tamil Nadu, India
| Date of Web Publication | 10-Jul-2017 |
Correspondence Address:
Suchetha N Malleshi
Oral Diagnostician and Radiologist, Sparkle Dental Clinic, Tirupur, Tamil Nadu
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/dmr.dmr_3_17
How to cite this article:
Malleshi SN. Nanotheranostics: For P4 medicine. Dent Med Res 2017;5:33-4 |
In future, medicine will evolve into a dedicated patient-centric discipline that is predictive, personalized, preventive, and participatory (P4).[1] Nanotheranostics, a relatively new science that incorporates nanotechnology and amalgamates diagnosis and therapeutics, shows promise in achieving the tailor-made P4 medical care. This molecular imaging and therapy technology uses colloidal nanoparticles (NPs) such as drug polymer conjugates, polymeric/magnetic NP, solid lipid NPs, dendrimers, micelles, liposomes, gold and other metal, and inorganic NPs and nanocarbons all in the size ranging from 10 to 1000 nm (1 μm).[2] The diagnostic mechanisms such as optical imaging (using fluorescent dyes or quantum dots), magnetic resonance imaging with superparamagnetic iron oxide and gadolinium, radionuclide imaging and computed tomography through heavy elements such as iodine, nano/microbubbles for ultrasound imaging are combined with therapeutic materials such as hydrophobic organic drugs, proteins, peptides, and genetic materials which are adsorbed, conjugated, entrapped, encapsulated for diagnosis and treatment concurrently at cellular and molecular level.[2],[3] In certain cases like doxorubicin, due to inherent fluorescence, the therapeutic component also doubles up as the imaging module.[3]
This unique technology is a captivating personalized treatment option for fatal diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and AIDS, and other severe diseases.[2] NPs can be delivered noninvasively to discover and target image biomarkers and deliver treatment based on the biomarker distribution. The facility to supervise treatment real-time will facilitate the physicians to adjust the type and dosing of drug for each patient, thus mitigating over- or under-treatment. One of the most propitious characteristics of using NPs is the ability to localize them in specific sites of diseases. Further, their nanometric size ensures increased circulation time due to decreased renal clearance. An enhanced permeability and retention effect is observed in tumors where NPs effortlessly extravasate from the irregularly dilated and leaky tumor blood vessels into tumor tissues and further get withheld secondary to poor lymphatic drainage. NPs also have a high surface-area-to-volume ratio, thus ensuring an enhanced loading capacity of therapeutic drugs and imaging agents.[4]
Akin to any emerging technology, there are certain challenges to overcome. Despite the plethora of proposed systems, only few have undergone in-vivo trails. Cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, hypersensitivity, and immunotoxicity need to be further explored along with cost-effectiveness.[4] Nonetheless, incorporation of nanotheranostics into routine patient care will prove beneficial by rendering personalized and predictive medicine.
Nanotheranostics will hold the key in future medicine and biomedical research. This emerging field shows immense potential with evolving new genomic biomarkers that with enhanced sensitivity will possibly allow early detection of genome/genetic modifications, especially for origin of cancer and significant utilization in other areas such as cardiology and tissue engineering.[3],[5]
| References | |  |
| 1. | Hood L, Balling R, Auffray C. Revolutionizing medicine in the 21 st century through systems approaches. Biotechnol J 2012;7:992-1001.  |
| 2. | Muthu MS, Leong DT, Mei L, Feng SS. Nanotheranostics – Application and further development of nanomedicine strategies for advanced theranostics. Theranostics 2014;4:660-77. |
| 3. | Luk BT, Zhang L. Current advances in polymer-based nanotheranostics for cancer treatment and diagnosis. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2014;6:21859-73. |
| 4. | Wang LS, Chuang MC, Ho JA. Nanotheranostics – A review of recent publications. Int J Nanomedicine 2012;7:4679-95. |
| 5. | Conde J, Tian F, de la Fuente JM, Baptista PV. Editorial: Cancer nanotheranostics: What have we learned so far? Front Chem 2016;3:71. |
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