Abstract
Atherosclerosis is the major underlying cause of cardiovascular diseases, the prevalence
of which is continuously increasing, thus currently standing as the leading global
cause of death. This pathology gradually develops over the course of 50 or more years
throughout the life of an individual under the influence of a vast number of factors,
both environmental and pathophysiological. This wealth of factors has elicited much
research into molecular imaging, with purely diagnostic purposes or with the hope
of engineering an efficient theranostic tool. To these ends, diverse nanomaterials
with desirable, tunable properties have been explored by different teams, as described
in this review.
Keywords
molecular imaging - atherosclerosis - theranostic - nanomaterials
