Theranostic nanomachines for cancer treatment

Multifunctional programmed nanomachines with theranostic functions demonstrated great potential in the clinical practice of oncology, as well as the personalized nanomedicine. The reason is because such nanoagents with combined diagnostic and therapeutic functions were found to be highly effective for cancer treatment. The appropriate design of nanomachines allows them to overcome the biological barriers of proliferative tumors and to distinguish the cancer cells from their normal counterparts. Moreover, the use of biocompatible and biodegradable precursors for construction of nanomachines minimize significantly the caused adverse effects to the normal tissue cells, which is a main problem of the chemotherapy. In addition, the utilization of theranostic nanomachines also enables an improved selectivity to the cancer in respect to its intrinsic complexity, heterogeneity, and dynamic evolution. Here we present the programmable functions and performance of the microenvironment-responsive nanomachines at a molecular level for cancer imaging and therapy.

Automated summary

Multifunctional programmed nanomachines with theranostic functions have great potential in oncology and personalized nanomedicine. The design of nanomachines enables them to overcome biological barriers and distinguish cancer cells from normal cells. The use of biocompatible and biodegradable materials minimizes adverse effects on normal cells, and theranostic nanomachines provide improved selectivity for cancer.