Inorganic nanosystems for therapeutic delivery: Status and prospects

Inorganic nanomaterials have an array of structural and physical properties that can be used in therapeutic delivery systems. The sizes, shapes, and surfaces of inorganic nanomaterials can be tailored to produce distinct interactions with biological systems both in vitro and in vivo. Nanoparticle cores can likewise be engineered to possess unique opticophysical properties, including upconversion, size-dependent absorbance/emission as well as magnetic properties such as superparamagnetism. These properties make inorganic nanomaterials as useful imaging agents for noninvasive diagnostics and remotely activated theragnostics. Taken together, these unique properties of inorganic nanomaterials make them promising delivery systems. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.