Fluorescent Multifunctional Organic Nanoparticles for Drug Delivery and Bioimaging: A Tutorial Review.

VARGAS-NADAL, GUILLEM; KOBER, MARIANA; NSAMELA, AUDREY ; TERENZIANI, FRANCESCA; SISSA, CRISTINA; PESCINA, SILVIA; SONVICO, FABIO; MOHD GAZZALI, AMIRAH ; WAHAB, HABIBAH A. ; GRISANTI, LUCA ; OLIVERA, MARÍA EUGENIA; PALENA, MARÍA CELESTE; GUZMAN, MARÍA LAURA; LUCIANI GIACOBBE, LAURA C.; JIMENEZ KAIRUZ, ALVARO F.; VENTOSA, NORA; RATERA, IMMA ; BELFIELD, KEVIN D. ; MAOZ, BEN M.

Pharmaceutics

MDPI

Lugar: Basel; Año: 2022 vol. 14

1999-4923

luorescent organic nanoparticles (FONs) are a large family of nanostructures constitutedby organic components that emit light in different spectral regions upon excitation, due to thepresence of organic fluorophores. FONs are of great interest for numerous biological and medicalapplications, due to their high tunability in terms of composition, morphology, surface functionalization, and optical properties. Multifunctional FONs combine several functionalities in a single nanostructure (emission of light, carriers for drug-delivery, functionalization with targeting ligands, etc.), opening the possibility of using the same nanoparticle for diagnosis and therapy. The preparation, characterization, and application of these multifunctional FONs require a multidisciplinary approach. In this review, we present FONs following a tutorial approach, with the aim of providing a general overview of the different aspects of the design, preparation, and characterization of FONs.The review encompasse