Nanotechnology for molecular imaging and targeted therapy, Circulation 107(8

The recent emergence of “molecular imaging ” as anintegrated discipline in academic medical centers hasset the stage for an evolutionary leap in diagnostic imaging and therapy.1 Molecular imaging is not a substitute for the traditional process of image formation and interpre-tation, but is intended to improve diagnostic accuracy and sensitivity by providing an in vivo analog of immunocyto-chemistry or in situ hybridization. It is less concerned with native image contrast or resolution, which are keys for depicting the effects of the disease on surrounding normal tissues, but rather, it seeks to enhance the conspicuity of microscopic pathologies by targeting the molecular compo-nents or processes that represent actual mechanisms of disease. Moreover, imaging will become crucial for in vivo characterization of the complex behaviors of disease in time and space that will tell us: where it is, how big it is, how fast it is developing, how many molecular processes are contrib-uting simultaneously, what to treat it with, how it is respond-ing to therapy, and how it is changing. Elements fundamental to the growth of molecular imaging are exemplified in summary statements from the secon