Behaviors and Persistence of Nanomaterials in Biomedical Applications

Preface

Nanomaterials have demonstrated the potential to revolutionize the way in which neoplasms are diagnosed and treated. Some efficient treatments relying on organic nanomaterials are already on the market, while even more promising ones based on noble metals are still at the bench level. Organism persistence after medical action is a major concern hampering the clinical translation of metal nanoparticles. Today, the most practical way to avoid undesirable toxic effects, while maintaining desirable imaging/therapeutic moieties, is by engineering all-in-one biodegradable nanoplatforms that are excretable through the renal pathway after the designed medical action. Despite the field being very young, in the near future personalized and effective treatments of neoplasms may no longer be a dream but a real possibility. The potentiality of these novel nanotheranostics is impressive, but a lot of work is yet to be done.

In order to introduce you to the “world of nanomaterials,” the scope of this book is outlined in Chapter 1 and a comprehensive review of the behaviors of both organic and inorganic nanomaterials is presented in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3, the promising applications in diagnosis and treatment of neoplasms are discussed. The interactions of nanomaterials with biological systems at both the cellular and body levels are presented in Chapter 4, together with the main drawback of metal nanomaterials—the issue of persistence. In Chapter 5, the actual FDA and EMA approval ...