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 that induces fibrillization of the amphiphile at the site of expression. The generation of nanofibers at specific cellular locations can be used as a diagonistic tool for early cancer detection or as site-specific apoptotic inducers of cancer cells. BSA can also be used as a powerfull imaging strategy because the fluorescence intensity of the amphiphiles changes dramatically upon their assembly. Transformation from micellar structures to nanofibers is also applicable in the design of drug release systems. This chapter discusses differentstrategies, molecular designs and applications of BSA for cancer diagnosis and therapy.