Hybrid Multifunctional Nanomaterials for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Applications

Abstract

The development of nanoscience and molecular biology led to spectacular progress of the bio-nano interface, bringing out various applications of hybrid nanomaterials in nanomedicine. Hybrid nanomaterials are designed with both inorganic and organic components. Recently, these materials have attracted significant attention, since not only they retain the beneficial properties of all their components, but also, they show additional synergistic performance, such as target specificity or biodegradability, improving the outcome of many biomedical procedures. Hybrid nanomaterials can be utilized in diagnostics, as imaging and contrast agents, enabling precise visualization at a molecular level, exploiting the potential of a various novel or multimodal imaging techniques, and reducing any adverse effect in healthy tissues. Hybrid nanomaterials can also be used in therapeutic applications, such as photodynamic and photothermal therapy, hyperthermia and radiotherapy, drug delivery, and gene therapies. Furthermore, hybrid multifunctional nanomaterials can be incorporated with several components that can be used for simultaneous diagnostics and therapeutics (theranostics), allowing real-time monitoring of an efficient treatment process, leading to more personalized healthcare systems. Thus, the synthesis of advanced hybrid nanomaterials for targeted and on-demand theranostics can be considered a state-of-the-art topic in nanomedicine and for this reason, these applications will be discussed in this chapter.