Volume 5 Number 1 2026
Nanotechnology-Driven Healthcare: Advances in Diagnosis, Therapy, and Disease Prevention
Bo-Lin Chen 1*, Tina Thai 2
Biosensors and Nanotheranostics 5 (1) 1-8 https://doi.org/10.25163/biosensors.5110979
Submitted: 26 December 2025 Revised: 12 February 2026 Accepted: 23 February 2026 Published: 25 February 2026
Medicine has long relied on fixed doses and population averages, an approach that fits poorly with the molecular diversity of disease. Smart nanomaterials, nanoscale architectures that can sense, respond to and sometimes report on their biological surroundings, offer a plausible route toward care that adapts to the individual patient. This review synthesizes recent evidence (2018–2026) on how such materials are designed, triggered and deployed across therapy, diagnosis and monitoring. We first organize the field by dimensionality and surface engineering, from quantum dots and plasmonic metals to carbon nanotubes, graphene and MXene nanosheets, metal–organic frameworks, polymeric nanogels and cell-membrane-camouflaged carriers. We then examine endogenous triggers (pH, glutathione, enzymes and reactive oxygen species) and exogenous triggers (near-infrared light, magnetic fields and ultrasound); these mechanisms separate physiological leakage of roughly 10–12% from triggered release above 80–85%. On the diagnostic side, MXene, graphene and plasmonic transducers report femtomolar to attomolar detection limits, while upconversion probes, magnetic contrast agents and nanozymes allow imaging and treatment to be combined in a single platform. A fast-moving strand concerns artificial intelligence, which now assists nanocarrier design and helps interpret signals from wearable and implantable sensors linked through the Internet of Medical Things. Yet the distance between laboratory performance and clinical use remains considerable. Long-term toxicity, protein-corona formation, batch variability under Good Manufacturing Practice, and regulatory frameworks written for static drugs all slow translation. Progress, we suggest, will depend less on inventing new materials than on standardized testing, scalable manufacture and collaboration among chemists, clinicians, data scientists and regulators.
Keywords: smart nanomaterials; precision medicine; stimuli-responsive drug delivery; theranostics; biosensors; MXenes; artificial intelligence; wearable devices; nanotoxicology; clinical translation
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