Overcoming Vascular Barriers to Improve the Theranostic Outcomes of Nanomedicines

Nanotheranostics aims to utilize nanomaterials to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases to improve the quality of patients' lives. Blood vessels are responsible to deliver nutrients and oxygen to the whole body, eliminate waste, and provide access for patrolling immune cells for healthy tissues. Meanwhile, they can also nourish disease tissues, spread disease factors or cells into other healthy tissues, and deliver nanotheranostic agents to cover all the regions of a disease tissue. Thus, blood vessels are the first and the most important barrier for highly efficient nanotheranostics. Here, the structure and function of blood vessels are explored and how these characteristics affect nanotheranostics is discussed. Moreover, new mechanisms and related strategies about overcoming vascular obstacles for improved nanotheranostic outcomes are critically summarized, and their merits and demerits of each strategy are analyzed. Moreover, the present challenges to completely exhibit the potential of overcoming vascular barriers to improve the theranostic outcomes of nanomedicines in life science are also discussed. Finally, the future perspective is further discussed.

Automated summary

Nanotheranostics utilizes nanomaterials to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases, aiming to improve patients' quality of life. Blood vessels play a crucial role in nanotheranostics as they affect the distribution and effectiveness of treatment. This article explores the structure and function of blood vessels, discusses their impact on nanotheranostics, summarizes strategies to overcome vascular barriers, analyzes the merits and demerits of each approach, and discusses current challenges and future perspectives.