Sibuyi Nicole Remaliah Samantha, Moabelo Koena Leah, Fadaka Adewale Oluwaseun, Meyer Samantha, Onani Martin Opiyo, Madiehe Abram Madimabe, Meyer Mervin
Department of Science and Innovation (DSI)/Mintek Nanotechnology Innovation Centre (NIC) Biolabels Node, Department of Biotechnology, University of the Western Cape, Private Bag X17, Bellville, 7535, South Africa.
Nanobiotechnology Research Group, Department of Biotechnology, University of the Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa.
Nanoscale Res Lett. 2021 Dec 5;16(1):174. doi: 10.1186/s11671-021-03632-w.
The medical properties of metals have been explored for centuries in traditional medicine for the treatment of infections and diseases and still practiced to date. Platinum-based drugs are the first class of metal-based drugs to be clinically used as anticancer agents following the approval of cisplatin by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over 40 years ago. Since then, more metals with health benefits have been approved for clinical trials. Interestingly, when these metals are reduced to metallic nanoparticles, they displayed unique and novel properties that were superior to their bulk counterparts. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are among the FDA-approved metallic nanoparticles and have shown great promise in a variety of roles in medicine. They were used as drug delivery, photothermal (PT), contrast, therapeutic, radiosensitizing, and gene transfection agents. Their biomedical applications are reviewed herein, covering their potential use in disease diagnosis and therapy. Some of the AuNP-based systems that are approved for clinical trials are also discussed, as well as the potential health threats of AuNPs and some strategies that can be used to improve their biocompatibility. The reviewed studies offer proof of principle that AuNP-based systems could potentially be used alone or in combination with the conventional systems to improve their efficacy.
几个世纪以来，传统医学一直在探索金属的药用特性以治疗感染和疾病，至今仍在应用。40多年前美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）批准顺铂后，铂类药物成为首批临床用作抗癌剂的金属基药物。从那时起，更多具有健康益处的金属已被批准用于临床试验。有趣的是，当这些金属被还原为金属纳米颗粒时，它们展现出优于其块状对应物的独特新颖特性。金纳米颗粒（AuNPs）是FDA批准的金属纳米颗粒之一，在医学的各种应用中显示出巨大潜力。它们被用作药物递送、光热（PT）、造影、治疗、放射增敏和基因转染剂。本文综述了它们的生物医学应用，涵盖其在疾病诊断和治疗中的潜在用途。还讨论了一些已批准用于临床试验的基于金纳米颗粒的系统，以及金纳米颗粒的潜在健康威胁和一些可用于提高其生物相容性的策略。所综述的研究提供了原理证明，即基于金纳米颗粒的系统有可能单独使用或与传统系统联合使用以提高疗效。
