Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology (Oct 2018)

Bringing Again Noble Metal Nanoparticles to the Forefront of Cancer Therapy

  • Ylea Vlamidis,
  • Valerio Voliani

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2018.00143
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6

Abstract

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Nanomaterials have attracted increasing interest for their potentiality to revolutionize the diagnosis and treatment of many diseases, especially neoplasms. Interestingly, there is a huge imbalance between the number of proposed nanoplatforms and the few ones approved for clinical applications. This disequilibrium affects in particular noble metal nanoparticles (NPs), that present no-approved platform and very few candidates in clinical trials because of the issue of persistence. In this perspective, we discuss if nanomedicine is generally keeping its promises with a focus on the approach that could fill the gap between NPs and oncology in the next future: the ultrasmall-in-nano.

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