Recent advances on Metal oxide-polymer systems in targeted therapy and diagnosis: Applications and toxicological perspective

Abstract

Abstract Metal oxide - polymeric (MOP) systems have played a pivotal role in the development of new generation medical technologies focused on targeted therapy and accurate prognosis of specific ailments. Several life threatening and chronic diseases like cancer, tuberculosis, neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson s and Alzheimer s and those related to cardiovascular systems have seen remarkable intervention of modern tools like magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound imaging, X-ray radiography, positron emission and computed tomography et cetera in recent years. These technologies aided by MOP based micro and nano composites serve the dual purpose to target the therapeutic stimulus like drug, heat or radiations to a desired location inside human body and simultaneously act as high endimaging and diagnostic tools owing to their electro-magnetic interactions with the composites. Multiple reports have been published through the last two decades focusing on nano and micro carriers acting as drug targeting and delivery agents. However, this review summarizes the most recent and innovative works published in the area ofMOP nanostructures in light of few prominent diseasesand the relevant toxicological concerns associated with these composite systems.