Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2017 Aug 23;7(15):3667-3689.
doi: 10.7150/thno.19365. eCollection 2017.

Strategies for Preparing Albumin-based Nanoparticles for Multifunctional Bioimaging and Drug Delivery

Fei-Fei An  1   2 , Xiao-Hong Zhang  1
Affiliations
Review

Strategies for Preparing Albumin-based Nanoparticles for Multifunctional Bioimaging and Drug Delivery

Fei-Fei An et al. Theranostics. .

Abstract

Biosafety is the primary concern in clinical translation of nanomedicine. As an intrinsic ingredient of human blood without immunogenicity and encouraged by its successful clinical application in Abraxane, albumin has been regarded as a promising material to produce nanoparticles for bioimaging and drug delivery. The strategies for synthesizing albumin-based nanoparticles could be generally categorized into five classes: template, nanocarrier, scaffold, stabilizer and albumin-polymer conjugate. This review introduces approaches utilizing albumin in the preparation of nanoparticles and thereby provides scientists with knowledge of goal-driven design on albumin-based nanomedicine.

Keywords: Albumin; Bioimaging; Drug delivery; Multifunctional.; Nanoparticle; Theranostics.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interest exists.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
a) Scheme of synthesizing albumin-based nanoparticles with different strategies and the biomedical applications of the prepared nanoparticles. Parts of the figure adapted with permissions from , .
Figure 2
Figure 2
a) Scheme of synthesizing highly red fluorescent gold nanoclusters. b) Scheme of synthesizing near-infrared fluorescent Ag2S quantum dots with the presence of albumin as the template and its conjugation with anti-VEGF mAb. c) Scheme of synthesizing Gd:CuS@BSA hybrid theranostic agents. Figures (a) and (c) adapted with permissions from , .
Figure 3
Figure 3
Scheme of preparing theranostic nanoparticles with BSA as template for trimodal NIRF/PA/MR imaging-guided photothermal tumor ablation.
Figure 4
Figure 4
a) The schematic illustration of preparing albumin-based nanotheranostics with HSA, PTX and ICG. b) The schematic illustration of preparing ICG loaded albumin nanoparticles for NIRF guided synergistic phototherapy. Figure (b) adapted with permissions from .
Figure 5
Figure 5
a) The scheme of modifying albumin into differently charged derivatives for further applications. b) A bioprobe synthesized with albumin as the scaffold. The redox responsive fluorescence pair of dye and its quencher was linked through a disulphide bond. c) The scheme of albumin bound with cisplatin prodrug.
Figure 6
Figure 6
a) Schematic of the effects of albumin corona on the nanoparticles in vivo. Various plasma proteins are adsorbed onto the nanoparticles after they are injected into the blood; the albumin corona around the nanoparticle inhibits the adsorption of plasma proteins. b) The scheme of albumin-stabilized magnetic nanoparticle and its multifunctional applications in biomedicine. Figure (b) adapted with permission from .
Figure 7
Figure 7
a) Preparation of Au@BSA-NHA for in vivo imaging of tumor hypoxia. b) Preparation of albumin/Ce6 stabilized EB/carbon nanotube-based delivery system (ACEC).
Figure 8
Figure 8
The scheme of synthesizing albumin-polymer-based nanoparticles. Figure adapted with permission from .
Figure 9
Figure 9
The schematic modification of albumin. a) The modification on the sites of lysine residues. b) The modification on the sites of cysteine residues.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Cheng Z, Al Zaki A, Hui JZ. et al. Multifunctional nanoparticles: cost versus benefit of adding targeting and imaging capabilities. Science. 2012;338:903–10. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lee D-E, Koo H, Sun I-C. et al. Multifunctional nanoparticles for multimodal imaging and theragnosis. Chem Soc Rev. 2012;41:2656–72. - PubMed
    1. Su J, Sun H, Meng Q. et al. Long Circulation Red-Blood-Cell-Mimetic Nanoparticles with Peptide-Enhanced Tumor Penetration for Simultaneously Inhibiting Growth and Lung Metastasis of Breast Cancer. Adv Funct Mater. 2016;26:1243–52.
    1. Anselmo AC, Zhang M, Kumar S. et al. Elasticity of nanoparticles influences their blood circulation, phagocytosis, endocytosis, and targeting. ACS Nano. 2015;9:3169–77. - PubMed
    1. Bertrand N, Wu J, Xu X. et al. Cancer nanotechnology: the impact of passive and active targeting in the era of modern cancer biology. Adv Drug Deliv Rev. 2014;66:2–25. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types