Nanomaterials as Novel Cardiovascular Theranostics

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a group of conditions associated with heart and blood vessels and are considered the leading cause of death globally. Coronary heart disease, atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction represents the CVDs. Since CVDs are associated with a series of pathophysiological conditions with an alarming mortality and morbidity rate, early diagnosis and appropriate therapeutic approaches are critical for saving patients’ lives. Conventionally, diagnostic tools are employed to detect disease conditions, whereas therapeutic drug candidates are administered to mitigate diseases. However, the advent of nanotechnological platforms has revolutionized the current understanding of pathophysiology and therapeutic measures. The concept of combinatorial therapy using both diagnosis and therapeutics through a single platform is known as theranostics. Nano-based theranostics are widely used in cancer detection and treatment, as evident from pre-clinical and clinical studies. Nanotheranostics have gained considerable attention for the efficient management of CVDs. The differential physicochemical properties of engineered nanoparticles have been exploited for early diagnosis and therapy of atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction and aneurysms. Herein, we provided the information on the evolution of nano-based theranostics to detect and treat CVDs such as atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, and angiogenesis. The review also aims to provide novel avenues on how nanotherapeutics’ trending concept could transform our conventional diagnostic and therapeutic tools in the near future.