title: The Theranostic Path to Personalized Nanomedicine.
abstract: Advances in nanotechnology and chemical engineering have led to the development of many different drug delivery systems. These 1-100(0) nm-sized carrier materials aim to increase drug concentrations at the pathological site, while avoiding their accumulation in healthy non-target tissues, thereby improving the balance between the efficacy and the toxicity of systemic (chemo-) therapeutic interventions. An important advantage of such nanocarrier materials is the ease of incorporating both diagnostic and therapeutic entities within a single formulation, enabling them to be used for theranostic purposes. We here describe the basic principles of using nanomaterials for targeting therapeutic and diagnostic agents to pathological sites, and we discuss how nanotheranostics and image-guided drug delivery can be used to personalize nanomedicine treatments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Molecular Imaging, University Clinic and Helmholtz Institute for Biomedical Engineering, RWTH - Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Theek
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Molecular Imaging, University Clinic and Helmholtz Institute for Biomedical Engineering, RWTH - Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Larissa Y
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Rizzo
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Molecular Imaging, University Clinic and Helmholtz Institute for Biomedical Engineering, RWTH - Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Josef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ehling
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Molecular Imaging, University Clinic and Helmholtz Institute for Biomedical Engineering, RWTH - Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Fabian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kiessling
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Molecular Imaging, University Clinic and Helmholtz Institute for Biomedical Engineering, RWTH - Aachen University, Aachen, Germany ; Department of Pharmaceutics, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands ; Department of Controlled Drug Delivery, MIRA Institute for Biomedical Technology and Technical Medicine, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Twan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lammers
keywords: Drug targeting; Image-guided drug delivery; Nanomedicine; Personalized medicine; Theranostics