Due to the remarkable properties of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), they have been extensively employed as a potential tool for the diagnosis and treatment of cancers. While the conventional drug delivery system fails to efficiently deliver the chemotherapeutics due to the complexity of tumor microenvironment, people have been seeking alternative nanoparticulate strategy to improve the tumor specificity, the therapeutic index as wells as the pharmacokinetic profile. The nontoxic and nonimmunogenic nature, the high permeability, and superior retention effect of AuNPs provide additional benefits by enabling easy penetration and accumulation of drugs at the tumor sites. Here in this review, we focused on discussing the recent advances regarding the design of acid-responsive AuNPs as well as their applications in drug/gene delivery and imaging in cancer diagnosis and therapy. Particularly, we highlighted the size switch strategies used in the development of acid-responsive AuNPs. This article is categorized under: Diagnostic Tools > in vivo Nanodiagnostics and Imaging Therapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Nanomedicine for Oncologic Disease.

中文翻译：

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智能酸响应性金纳米颗粒在肿瘤治疗中的最新进展。

由于金纳米颗粒（AuNPs）的卓越性能，它们已被广泛用作诊断和治疗癌症的潜在工具。尽管传统的药物输送系统由于肿瘤微环境的复杂性而无法有效地输送化学治疗药物，但人们一直在寻求替代的纳米颗粒策略来改善肿瘤特异性，治疗指数以及药代动力学特征。AuNPs的无毒，无免疫原性，高渗透性和出色的保留效果，使药物易于在肿瘤部位渗透和积聚，从而提供了额外的好处。在这篇评论中 我们专注于讨论有关酸响应性AuNPs设计的最新进展及其在癌症诊断和治疗中的药物/基因传递和成像中的应用。特别是，我们重点介绍了在酸响应性AuNPs开发中使用的大小转换策略。本文归类于：诊断工具>体内纳米诊断和成像治疗方法与药物发现>肿瘤用纳米药物。