With the development of nanotechnology, nanocarriers have been increasingly used for curative drug/gene delivery. Various nanocarriers are being introduced and assessed, such as polymer nanoparticles, liposomes, and micelles. As a novel theranostic system, nanocarriers hold great promise for ultrasound molecular imaging, targeted drug/gene delivery, and therapy. Nanocarriers, with the propertie...

The cross-administration of nanocarriers modified by poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), named PEGylated nanocarriers, a type of combination therapy, is becoming an increasingly important method of long-term drug delivery, to decrease side effects, avoid multidrug resistance, and increase therapeutic efficacy. However, repeated injections of PEGylated nanocarriers induces the accelerated blood clearan...

The side effects of antitumor drugs and low treatment efficacy are two major challenges of current chemotherapy. To address these issues, we developed a new kind of smart nanocarriers that combine pH-responsive chemotherapy and near-infrared (NIR) light triggered photodynamic therapy. These nanocarriers were based on upconversion nanoparticle (UCN)-loaded folate-conjugated polymeric lipid vesic...

Nanotechnology has recently gained increased attention for its capability to effectively diagnose and treat various tumors. Nanocarriers have been used to circumvent the problems associated with conventional antitumor drug delivery systems, including their nonspecificity, severe side effects, burst release and damaging the normal cells. Nanocarriers improve the bioavailability and therapeutic e...

In this study, lipid modified polymeric nanoparticles for oral delivery of insulin was developed. Firstly, chitosan nanoparticles (CS NPs) was prepared by cross-linking of chitosan with triphosphate TPP as the core of the core-shell structured nanocarriers. Then lipid coating chitosan nanoparticles (LCS) was prepared by co-incubation of the CS NPs with EPC liposomes. The morphologies of these n...

Low pH in the tumor micromilieu is a recognized pathological feature of cancer. This attribute of cancerous cells has been targeted herein for the controlled release of chemotherapeutics at the tumour site, while sparing healthy tissues. To this end, pH-sensitive, hollow ZnO-nanocarriers loaded with paclitaxel were synthesized and their efficacy studied in breast cancer in vitro and in vivo. Th...

Multidrug membrane transporters (efflux pumps) are responsible for multidrug resistance (MDR) and the low efficacy of therapeutic drugs. Noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) possess a high surface-area-to-volume ratio and size-dependent plasmonic optical properties, enabling them to serve both as imaging probes to study sized-dependent MDR and as potential drug carriers to circumvent MDR and enhance...

A facile self-assembly method is described to prepare PEGylated silica nanocarriers using hydrophobic mesoporous silica nanoparticles and a pluronic F127 polymer. Pluronic capped nanocarriers revealed excellent dispersibility in biological media with cyto- and blood compatibilities.

BACKGROUND Despite marked optimism in the field of nanomedicine about the use of drug-delivery nanocarriers, uncertainties exist concerning nanocarriers' possible unintended impacts and effects. These uncertainties could affect user acceptance and acceptability. "Acceptance" refers to the intention to put a technology or a device to a specified use. "Acceptability" refers to a value judgment th...

In this paper, we present the role of nanotechnology in the development and improvement of techniques for early diagnosis and effective treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Since AD pathology is almost irreversible and present-day medications for AD only lower its associated symptoms, application of disease-modifying treatments could be successful only if AD early diagnosis is possible. The n...