Cancer nanotechnology: emerging role of gold nanoconjugates

Over the last few decades, the study of nanotechnology has grown exponentially. Nanotechnology bridges science, engineering and technology; it continues to expand in definition as well as practice. One sub-set of nanotechnology is bionanotechnology, this will be the focus of this review. Currently, bionanotechnology is being studied and exploited for utility within medicinal imaging, diagnosis and therapy in regard to cancer. Cancer is a world-wide health problem and the implication rate as well as the death rate increase year to year. However promising work is being done with gold nanoparticles for detection, diagnosis and targeted drug delivery therapy. Gold nanoparticles can be synthesized in various shapes and sizes, which directly correlates to the color; they can also be manipulated to carry various antibody, protein, plasmid, DNA or small molecule drug. Herein we summarize some of the very influential research being done in the field of Cancer Nanotechnology with an emphasis on gold nanoparticles.