With good biocompatibility and biological safety, the Prussian blue (PB) is used as a clinical medicine for the treatment of radioactive exposure, which is approved by the USA Food and Drug Administration. Owing to the easiness of the control of size, structure, surface modification and its other good performances, the PB nanoparticles (PB NPs) play an important role in the biomedical field including the drug delivery system (DDS), the molecular imaging, the gene therapy, and the photothermal therapy. This paper reviews the most recent research advances and discusses the future development trends of the applications of the PB-based nanotheranostics in the diagnosis including the photoacoustic imaging (PA), the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the ultrasonic imaging (US) and the multimodal imaging, as well as in the therapy including the photothermal therapy, the gene therapy and the chemotherapy.

Prussian blue  /  molecular imaging  /  cancer  /  photothermal  /  photoacoustic imaging