Advances in controlled gas-releasing nanomaterials for therapeutic applications

In the field of nanomedicine, gas therapy is currently a hot topic under exploration as it can treat a variety of disease conditions. The key challenge of delivering medicinal gas via any delivery system is that the technique should be feasible to deliver the gas over an appropriate time interval as well as specifically targeting the affected area. This has enabled gas therapy as an active research area with an aim to improve and discover new materials, methodologies and technologies. In this review, we present the recent advances in research on delivering medicinal gases using nanocarriers that can specifically target with precise spatial-temporal control of release behavior and discuss their future perspectives. The main emphasis has been focused on nanoparticle gas carriers to overcome the challenges in gas delivery for therapeutic applications including prevention of gas diffusion while transportation, improving the stability of the gas in the complex biological environment, specifically targeting the tissue and controlled gas release for efficient programmed treatment modality. Furthermore, the therapeutic effects of the nanomaterial gas carriers via efficient gas releasing properties demonstrated in the preclinical studies with cell/animal models are discussed. This critical review is intended to make clear the present status, the possibility and future advancement of gas therapy for the scientific community.