โ Scribed by Chen, Xiaoyuan
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
The ability to identify diseased tissue for detection and treatment remains a central goal for medical research. Several noninvasive or minimally invasive diagnostic modalities have been developed which allow one to obtain anatomical, physiological, and molecular information. "Molecular imaging" can be defined as in situ visualization, characterization, and measurement of biological processes in the living organism at the molecular or cellular level. Diagnosis and visualization at the molecular level, that is, detection of a disease in its infancy, may significantly improve treatment and patient care. By combining two or more imaging modalities, each with its different strengths, high-quality complementary (e.g., molecular and anatomical) information can be obtained and analyzed in the context of each other. This has led to the rise of dual-and multimodality imaging approaches. Depending on the modality, imaging probes or contrast agents are required or highly desirable; they can range in size from single atoms to cell-sized constructs. Nanoparticles, that is, entities with dimensions in the range of several tens of nanometers, can display desirable pharmacokinetic properties and permit the combination of different clinically relevant moieties (e.g., targeting groups, molecular beacons, and contrast agents for different modalities, surface coatings, enclosed payload) in a single unit. The inclusion of a therapeutic component yields "theranostics." Taken together, nanotechnology-based molecular probes offer the promise for tailor-made clinical tools required for "personalized medicine." This chapter provides an introductory overview of molecular imaging, major imaging modalities, and imaging probes, with particular focus on the promises and challenges of nanoparticle-based compounds.
Most areas of clinical practice require identification and localization of diseased tissue for detection and treatment. Ideally, reliable, specific, and noninvasive high-contrast Nanoplatform-Based Molecular Imaging Edited by Xiaoyuan Chen
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