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Updated: Jun 13, 2026
Preparation and Photoacoustic Analysis of Cellular Vehicles Containing Gold Nanorods
Published on: May 2, 2016
Gold nanoparticles: opportunities and challenges in nanomedicine
Rochelle Arvizo1, Resham Bhattacharya, Priyabrata Mukherjee
1Cancer Center, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.
Importance Of The Field:
Site-specific drug delivery is an important area of research that is anticipated to increase the efficacy of the drug and reduce potential side effects. Owing to this, substantial work has been done developing non-invasive and targeted tumor treatment with nanoscale metallic particles.
Areas Covered In This Review:
This review focuses on the work done in the last few years developing gold nanoparticles as cancer therapeutics and diagnostic agents. However, there are challenges in using gold nanoparticles as drug delivery systems, such as biodistribution, pharmacokinetics and possible toxicity. Approaches to limit these issues are proposed.
What The Reader Will Gain:
Different approaches from several different disciplines are discussed. Potential clinical applications of these engineered nanoparticles are also presented.
Take Home Message:
As a result of their unique size-dependent physicochemical and optical properties, adaptability, subcellular size and biocompatibility, these nanosized carriers offer a suitable means of transporting small molecules as well as biomacromolecules to diseased cells/tissues.
