Many promising nanoparticle-based imaging technologies have been reported in recent years. Nanoparticles are particularly useful as they offer a wealth of features, complementary to small-molecule agents. For example, nanoparticles can serve as multimodal imaging agents, enabling detection of disease with multiple methods, such as optical imaging, photoacoustic imaging, PET, or MRI. Nanoparticles can be guided with great specificity to their target when coated with targeting agents, like antibodies, peptides, or affibodies. Nanoparticles are also known to accumulate via the Enhanced Permeation and Retention (EPR) effect in tumors, but to date a consensus on the benefit of specific targeting vs. EPR effect is still lacking and requires further investigations. Fundamental questions to answer are how to direct nanoparticles towards specific excretion pathways (renal, biliary), how to design autodegradable nanoparticles, and how to design synthetic procedures that yield the most nontoxic, most biocompatible formulations, etc. Nanoparticles can be loaded with therapeutic agents, to provide targeted therapy and controlled release. They can also be used as photothermal agents in addition to their imaging capabilities, or designed to trigger external therapeutic devices. They can even be manipulated in their movement in vivo via external fields. Theranostic tools can be developed, based on nanoparticles that possess capabilities for specific diagnostic imaging, and effective treatment, combined in a single agent. Given the complexity in properties of nanoparticles, it is important, and challenging, to come to a consensus on standards, data sharing and reproducibility of these materials.

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Highlights

Introduction to Molecular Imaging in Nanotechnology and Theranostics (MINT) video 

Watch the video here and hear from MINT Founding Chair, Moritz Kircher, MD, PhD, as well as other leaders in the field of MINT from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.