Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
4
TheragnosticNanoparticleswiththePower
to Diagno se,Treat,andMonitorDiseases
SheltonD.Caruthers,GregoryM.Lanza,andSamuelA.Wickline
SchoolofMedicine,WashingtonUniversityinSt.Louis,St.Louis,Missouri,USA
CONTENTS
4.1. Introduction........................................................................................................................... 89
4.2. Nanoparticle.Approach.to.Targeted.Imaging.................................................................. 90
4.2.1. Targeting.................................................................................................................... 90
4.2.2. Imaging...................................................................................................................... 91
4.2.3. Therapeutic.Delivery............................................................................................... 91
4.2.4. Perluorocarbon.Nanoparticle.Emulsion.............................................................. 92
4.3. Detecting.Markers.of.Disease............................................................................................. 92
4.4. Characterizing.Disease........................................................................................................ 93
4.5. Targeted.Drug.Delivery....................................................................................................... 94
4.6. Monitoring.Response.to.Therapy....................................................................................... 97
4.7. Conclusion............................................................................................................................. 99
References....................................................................................................................................... 99
4.1 Introduction
As.recently.as.the.mid-1990s,.a.new.thrust.in.medical.imaging.was.mounting..Once.again,.
the.promise.offered.by.clinical.imaging.was.focusing.on.more.than.just.pretty.pictures.of.
gross.anatomy,.but.rather.on.visualizing.the.underlying.physiology,.and.the.dysfunction.
therein,.of.pathology..The.term. molecular imaging .was.adopted.to.describe.this.noninvasive.
quantitative.characterization.of.biologic.processes.at.the.molecular.(and.cellular).level, 1,2 .
and. its. progress. was. driven. by. contemporaneous. developments. in. multiple. disciplines,.
including. genomics,. proteomics,. molecular. biology,. medical. imaging,. computer. science,.
and. nanotechnology.. The. great. promise. of. molecular. imaging. incorporates. early. (even.
presymptomatic). disease. detection. with. patient-speciic. characterization. that. could. lead.
to.personalized.medicine. 3
While.molecular.imaging—which.often.employs.site-targeted.contrast.agents—involves.
all.imaging.modalities,.nuclear.medicine.has.become.synonymous.with.the.term.because.
the.other.clinical.modalities.typically.lack.the.sensitivity.to.the.contrast.agents.and.have.
dificulty. detecting. the. small. local. concentration. of. molecularly. targeted. agents.. Where.
nuclear.medicine.techniques.such.as.positron.emission.tomography.are.exquisitely.sensi-
tive.to.small.molecules.such.as. 18 Fluorodeoxyglucose.(FDG),.this.small.molecule.approach.
cannot.deliver.enough.contrast.agent.to.rise.above.the.detection.limit.for.other.common.
89
 
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