ABSTRACT
The presence and changes of certain proteins in biological fluids are indicators of the inception of diseases. However, at the initial stages of the disease, these biomarkers are difficult to detect due to their low concentrations. The detection of these biomarkers at early stages is a key step in disease diagnosis, treatment, and management since they increase cure and survival rates especially for cancer and neurological disorder patients. Traditional methods of disease diagnosis are not sufficiently sensitive for these low concentrations of biomarkers and are time consuming and often costly. Nanotechnology has emerged as a panacea for early disease diagnosis, treatment, and management. Innovative nanotechnologies have significantly enhanced the real-time diagnosis of diseases at early stages. Notably, biosensors have been explored as effective, sensitive, user-friendly, real-time, and cost-effective point of care diagnostic devices for early disease detection and monitoring curative progress. Consequently, many types of nanomaterials have been studied to fabricate nanosensor devices for applications in the medical field. A wide variety of these nanomaterials exist, and the success rates of their applications have been reported at varying levels. In this chapter, the applications of metallic nanoparticles, nanotubes, nanowires, and quantum dots in medical diagnosis and imaging are discussed.
