Applications of inorganic nanoparticles in the diagnosis and therapy of atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis is a chronic progressive disease, which may result in serious clinical outcomes, such as acute heart events or stroke with high mortality. At present, the clinical problems of atherosclerosis mainly consist in it is difficult to confirm the plaques or identify the stability of plaques in the early phase, and short of valid treatments. Fortunately, with the development of nanotechnology, various of inorganic nanoparticles with imaging enhancement and noninvasive therapy functions have been studied in imaging and treatment of atherosclerosis, which bring new hopes to patients. This review focuses on recent progress of inorganic nanoparticles applied in diagnosis and therapy of atherosclerosis, including the key processes in development of atherosclerosis and mainly involved cells, inorganic nanoparticle-based dual-mode imaging methods classified by types of targeting cells, and inorganic nanoparticle-based therapeutic approaches such as photothermal therapy (PTT), photodynamic therapy (PDT), sonodynamic therapy (SDT), drug delivery and gene therapy for atherosclerosis. Finally, this review discusses the challenges and directions of inorganic nanoparticles in potential clinical translation of anti-atherosclerosis in future. We believe this review will enable the readers to systematically understand the progress of inorganic nanoparticles-based imaging and therapy of atherosclerosis, and therefore promote the further development of anti-atherosclerosis.