Over the past two decades, nanomedicine has shown great promise for
changing the paradigm of conventional medicine. However, the translation rate of nanomedicines from basic
scientific research to clinical application remains relatively low. One of the major concerns for the effective clinical
translation is the insufficient understanding of the nanomedicines in vivo behavior. In this regard, non-invasive
imaging is emerging as a promising avenue to address this issue, offering attractive possibilities to monitor the
nanoparticle pharmacokinetic profile, the drug delivery process, or the target site accumulation. Within this
framework, the main objective of this thesis is the tailoring of sphingomyelin nanoemulsions with imaging agents
(e.g., MR contrast agents, radionuclides, and fluorophores) to explore their in vivo behavior in preclinical models.
Biodistribution studies of labeled sphingomyelin nanoemulsions demonstrated their versality to be adapted for
different medical needs and provided valuable information about the in vivo fate of these novel nanoplatforms.
Altogether, this thesis sheds light on the potential of these lipid nanoemulsions as translational nanomedicines and
opens a gate for the development of further preclinical nanotheranostics.2024-03-1