Size Matters: Gold Nanoparticles in Targeted Cancer Drug Delivery

Abstract

Cancer is the current leading cause of death worldwide, responsible for approximately one quarter of all deaths in the USA and UK. Nanotechnologies provide tremendous opportunities for multimodal, site-specific drug delivery to these disease sites and Au nanoparticles further offer a particularly unique set of physical, chemical and photonic properties with which to do so. This review will highlight some recent advances, by our laboratory and others, in the use of Au nanoparticles for systemic drug delivery to these malignancies and will also provide insights into their rational design, synthesis, physiological properties and clinical/preclinical applications, as well as strategies and challenges toward the clinical implementation of these constructs moving forward.

Supplementary data

To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at:www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.2217/epi-2016-0184

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank V Nabokov for helpful discussions.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors acknowledge the generous support from the US NIH (1U01CA151802–01) and the US National Science Foundation‘s Department of Materials Research (0906822). They also acknowledge support from the Center for Nanostructured Materials Technology under the 21st Century Frontier R&D Programs of the Korean Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (Grant No. 08K1501–01910). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.