Synthetic strategies of short peptide-modified nanomaterials for diagnostics and phototherapy

Cancer is a leading proliferating disease in the world. To tackle its detrimental impact on humanity, anticancer drugs are used which are hydrophobic and most of them have shown selectivity issues in diagnostics as well as photodynamic and photothermal therapy. However, nanotechnology has shown the potential to tackle selectivity and specificity. Here, we highlight the recent literature on short peptide-based drug delivery systems and short peptides modified with drugs for the formation of nanomaterials with different morphology and then their role in diagnostics and photothermal/photodynamic therapy. This chapter will cover the amino acids and short peptides which are covalently and noncovalently linked with antitumor drugs to form self-assembled nanomaterials as drug carriers and carrier-free systems along with the physicochemical properties. In the end, we will present the future perspective and conclusion for next-generation nanomaterials for anticancer treatments.