Biomedical Engineering Program, College of Engineering, American University of Sharjah, Sharjah P.O. Box 26666, United Arab Emirates
Mohammad F. Almadani
Faculty of Medicine, Hashemite University, Zarqa 13133, Jordan
Nour AlSawaftah
Materials Science and Engineering Ph.D. Program, College of Arts and Sciences, American University of Sharjah, Sharjah P.O. Box 26666, United Arab Emirates
Waad H. Abuwatfa
Materials Science and Engineering Ph.D. Program, College of Arts and Sciences, American University of Sharjah, Sharjah P.O. Box 26666, United Arab Emirates
Ghaleb A. Husseini
Biomedical Engineering Program, College of Engineering, American University of Sharjah, Sharjah P.O. Box 26666, United Arab Emirates
The non-specific and minimally selective nature of traditional drug administration methods, along with various other limitations, makes the use of drug delivery systems more favorable. Light-responsive, or light-triggered, drug delivery systems provide more controlled and less invasive treatment approaches, addressing the shortcomings of traditional methods. In this paper, we reviewed studies utilizing light-triggered nanoparticles (NPs) for treating cancer and various other diseases, focusing on photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT) in both in vivo and in vitro applications. Most of the reviewed studies employed synergistic approaches that combined PDT or PTT with other therapeutic methods to leverage the strengths of both techniques and enhance treatment efficiency or to overcome the individual limitations of each method, which is discussed extensively in this paper.
