In Vivo Molecular Fluorescence Imaging - Nanotechnology for Biomedical Imaging and Diagnostics - page 256

9

In VIVo Molecular
Fluorescence IMagIng

Yasaman Ardeshirpour, Victor Chernomordik, Moinuddin
Hassan, and Amir H. Gandjbakhche
Section on Functional and Analytical Biophotonics, Program of Pediatrics Imaging
and Tissue Sciences, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

Dan Sackett

Section of Cell Biophysics, Program in Physical Biology, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda,
MD, USA

9.1 IntroductIon

In the last few decades, many academic and industrial groups have focused their research
on creating new approaches and concepts in nanomaterials. The healthcare expects to
benefit most from these approaches by using nanoparticles both for drug delivery and as
imaging agents [1, 2]. Currently the traditional therapy of many diseases, including
cancer, suffers from late diagnostics and inadequate drug delivery. Increasing the dose
of drugs to overcome their poor delivery often results in systemic toxicity, generating
adverse side effects. The other weakness of current traditional therapy is the lack of
timely monitoring of the therapeutic response especially at the early stages of treatment.
Nanoparticles can overcome these problems.
By definition, nanoparticles are a group of materials with a unit size in the
1-100 nm range. Due to the laws of quantum mechanics that apply to the materials at
nano-scale range and the increased in their surface to volume ratio; optical, magnetic,