ABSTRACT
Metal nanoparticles (NPs) are actively investigated as the next generation of targeted drug delivery system. They overcome drawbacks of conventional treatment, such as unwanted toxicity and resistance development. Metal NPs are suitable and promising agents for the treatment as well as diagnosis of diseases and progress of the treatment. They possess several such physical and chemical characteristics that are not present in the bulk material, and few of these altered properties prove to be of biomedical importance, making them suitable for the treatment of several diseases. In addition, inherent properties of metal NPs make them useful for diagnosis and imaging also. For example, iron oxide (FeO) exhibits superparamagnetic properties and thus is useful in imaging techniques like MRI. Several other metals also, like gold, silver, zinc, titanium, silicon, hold great potential in biomedical science, either inherently or by surface modifications. A number of studies have confirmed that their potential in biomedical sciences and different formulations of metal NPs are already in preclinical and clinical stages.
This chapter aims to cover various types of metal NPs and their methods of synthesis, characterisation techniques, marketed products and recent advancements. In addition, this chapter also highlights recent reports of the theranostics application of metal NPs.
