Nanotechnology-based Strategies for Molecular Imaging, Diagnosis, and Therapy of Organ Transplantation

Organ transplantation is the preferred paradigm for patients with end-stage organ failures. Despite unprecedented successes, complications such as immune rejection, ischemia–reperfusion injury, and graft dysfunction remain significant barriers to long-term recipient survival after transplantation. Conventional immunosuppressive drugs have limited efficacy because of significant drug toxicities, high systemic immune burden, and emergence of transplant infectious disease, leading to poor quality of life for patients. Nanoparticle-based drug delivery has emerged as a promising medical technology and offers several advantages by enhancing the delivery of drug payloads to their target sites, reducing systemic toxicity, and facilitating patient compliance over free drug administration. In addition, nanotechnology-based imaging approaches provide exciting diagnostic methods for monitoring molecular and cellular changes in transplanted organs, visualizing immune responses, and assessing the severity of rejection. These noninvasive technologies are expected to help enhance the posttransplantation patient survival through real time and early diagnosis of disease progression. Here, we present a comprehensive review of nanotechnology-assisted strategies in various aspects of organ transplantation, including organ protection before transplantation, mitigation of ischemia–reperfusion injury, counteraction of immune rejection, early detection of organ dysfunction posttransplantation, and molecular imaging and diagnosis of immune rejection.