ABSTRACT
The term theranostics, which is derived from “diagnostics” and “therapy,” refers to a combined treatment strategy of a diagnostic agent and a therapy. The integration of diagnostic imaging capability with therapy is critical for addressing the challenges for future biomedical applications. Multifunctional nanomedicine holds considerable promise as the next generation of medicine that enables the early detection of disease, monitoring treatment, and targeted therapy with minimal toxicity. Recently, there has been a tremendous development of a variety of nanotechnology platforms to diagnose and treat diseases. Especially, polymeric nanoplatforms such as polymeric micelles, vesicles, dendrimers, and polymersomes have been intensively investigated for multifunctional theranostic applications. Compared with traditional molecular-based contrast agents or therapeutic drugs, polymeric nanoparticle-based nanomedicine paradigm enables a highly integrated design that incorporates multiple functions, such as cell targeting, ultrasensitive bioimaging/diagnostics, and therapy, in a single system. In particular, the combinations of various nanostructured materials with diverse properties offer synergetic multifunctional nanomedical platforms, which make it possible to accomplish multimodal imaging, and simultaneous diagnosis and therapy. In this entry, we summarize the recent developments on the fabrication strategies of polymeric multifunctional nanoplatforms for simultaneous diagnosis and therapy.
