Theranostics: Optical Imaging and Gene Therapy with Neuroblastoma‐Targeting Polymeric Nanoparticles for Potential Theranostic Applications (Small 9/2016)

Ligand-modified, gene-loaded nanoparticles (NPs) are designed and prepared as a tumor-targeting theranostic agent by I. C. Kwon, K. Y. Lee, and co-workers. The nanoparticles offer neuroblastoma-specific in-vivo optical imaging, and adding a therapeutic gene cocktail into the NPs could play a critical role for gene-therapy-based on RNAi. On page 1201, dye-labeled NPs are modified with rabies virus glycoprotein peptide to enhance the receptor-mediated uptake by neuroblastoma, and an siRNA cocktail is loaded into the NPs, inducing RNA interference and significantly suppressing tumor growth in a mouse model.