Nanomaterials for Contrast Agent and Biomedical Imaging

Dear colleagues,

A key focus of nanotechnology for biomedical application is the use of nanomaterials as Contrast Agents (CA) for anatomical and functional imaging. Nanosized CA have been developed for virtually any of the Biomedical Imaging modalities nowadays available in both clinical and preclinical fields. By exploiting the potential of nanotechnology, researchers have designed nanomaterials containing probes for different imaging modalities (multimodal CA) and targeting moieties, such as peptides or antibodies, which in principle could improve the specificity of the CA.

Due to the presence of large fenestrations in the endothelium of tumour blood vessels, nanomaterials may extravasate more easily in cancerous than in healthy tissues with a consequent accumulation of the CA in the tumour. For the above reason, nanomaterials are excellent candidates for tumour diagnosis, although massive capture in the reticuloendothelial system strongly limits the percentage of the injected dose that actually reaches tumour tissue.

Despite a limited cost/benefit ratio and some safety concerns which have prevented until now the clinical development and widespread use of nanomaterials as CA and biomedical imaging tools, this is a flourishing and original research field. The aim of this special number of “Nanomaterials” is to provide an overview of the most recent and promising developments in this topic.

Dr. Pasquina Marzola
Guest Editor

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