Volume 5 Number 1 2026
Engineering nanoparticles for theranostics, gene delivery and precision medicine
Md Shamsuddin Sultan Khan 1*, Muhit Rana 2
Biosensors and Nanotheranostics 5 (1) 1-8 https://doi.org/10.25163/biosensors.5110983
Submitted: 21 March 2026 Revised: 11 May 2026 Accepted: 20 May 2026 Published: 22 May 2026
Medicine is moving away from standardised dosing toward interventions matched to the molecular identity of an individual lesion, and nanotechnology has become the material substrate on which that shift depends. This review examines how engineered constructs between roughly 1 and 200 nm now serve three converging frontiers simultaneously: theranostics, in which a contrast reporter and a therapeutic payload occupy the same particle; non-viral gene therapy, in which siRNA, mRNA, plasmid DNA, and CRISPR–Cas9 machinery reach the cytosol without a viral capsid; and precision medicine, in which ligand decoration and stimulus-responsive chemistry restrict activity to a defined biological address. We screened records against prespecified criteria, and extracted platform composition, targeting strategy, imaging modality, cargo, and quantitative biological outcome from the retained primary studies. Recurring patterns emerged rather than isolated successes. Inorganic cores dominate high-resolution imaging; ionizable lipid nanoparticles dominate hepatic nucleic acid delivery, with clinical confirmation from patisiran and from in vivo CRISPR editing of transthyretin; membrane-cloaked carriers extend circulation by inheriting host surface proteins; and endogenous or operator-applied triggers govern where unloading occurs. Translation, however, remains the narrow point. Protein corona formation, mononuclear phagocyte clearance, endosomal entrapment, batch heterogeneity, and the absence of harmonised regulatory criteria for multicomponent constructs repeatedly blunt efficacy that looked decisive in rodents. We argue that corona-aware design, microfluidic manufacture, and human-relevant screening models, rather than novel chemistry, are the practical prerequisites for the next generation of clinically viable nanomedicines.
Keywords: nanomedicine; theranostics; lipid nanoparticles; CRISPR–Cas9 delivery; biomimetic camouflage; stimuli-responsive release; protein corona; clinical translation
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