Polymeric nanosystems for cancer theranostics

Abstract

Polymeric nanocarriers loaded with the anticancer drug have been identified as promising methods for effective cancer therapy. Polymeric nanoparticles owe unique features like high water solubility, biodegradability, biocompatibility, nontoxicity, surface functionalization potential, and stability, therefore, can be utilized for the design of a safe anticancer theranostic nanomedicine. Several polymeric platforms are reported in this context, including nanospheres, micelles, conjugates, nanogels, scaffolds, dendrimers, etc. These may be loaded with both, contrast agents and anticancer biomolecules for the preparation of theranostic nano polymeric carrier. These theranostic systems provide dual functionalities of therapeutics delivery for anticancer effect and imaging function for real-time monitoring of drug distribution and therapeutic action assessment at the target site. Besides, polymeric nanocarriers could be further modified with receptor-targeted and stimuli-responsive moieties for providing both; tumor-targeted imaging and targeted cancer therapy. This chapter reports various polymeric nanoparticles that can be used for targeted delivery and site-specific imaging of tumors for providing imaging-guided cancer therapy. Polymeric nanoparticles can be equipped with one or more imaging agents for providing uni, dual or multimodal imaging. It offers a potential platform to merge chemo/photothermal/photodynamic therapy with one or more imaging techniques namely; photoacoustic imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound imaging, positron emission tomography, single-photon emission computed tomography, and other optical imaging. © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.