Hydrogel Nanomaterials for Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy

Biocatalytic self-assembly (BSA) has recently emerged as a promising approach for cancer diagnosis and treatment. The concept is based on the transformation of non self-assembling amphiphiles into self-assembling ones due to a physiological stimulus and/or activity of biomolecules. Overexpression of enzymes and changes in pH are the most common triggers used in cancer related BSA resulting in fibrillization at the site of expression. The generattion of nanofibers at a specific location can be used either as a diagonistic tool for early cancer detection as the assembly process changes dramatically the fluorescence intensity and thus, enables powerfull imaging strategies; or as apoptotic inducers for cancer cells. Transformation from micellar structures to nanofibers can also be used in the design of drug release systems. This chapter discusses different strategies, molecular designs and applications of BSA for cancer diagnosis and therapy.