Imaging inflammation in real time—future of nanoparticles

The detection of subclinical early inflammation in autoimmune diseases is an important but currently technically demanding approach to direct initial diagnosis and subsequent choice of therapy. Recent advances in imaging using NP provides the potential to detect cellular recruitment, vascular activation or leakage at a subclinically stage of disease and may provide predictive "biomarkers" of future pathogenesis. The NP used are either untargeted and taken up by phagocytic cells, or are linked to a ligand, targeting localisation to the site of inflammation. Techniques, varying from MRI and fluorescence to Raman spectroscopy are being employed. In this short review, we summarise many of the recent developments in the field of NP imaging related to inflammation.