PMID- 34368102
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
LR  - 20210810
IS  - 2296-4185 (Print)
IS  - 2296-4185 (Electronic)
IS  - 2296-4185 (Linking)
VI  - 9
DP  - 2021
TI  - Using Stock-Flow Diagrams to Visualize Theranostic Approaches to Solid Tumors in 
      Personalized Nanomedicine.
PG  - 709727
LID - 10.3389/fbioe.2021.709727 [doi]
LID - 709727
AB  - Personalized nanomedicine has rapidly evolved over the past decade to tailor the 
      diagnosis and treatment of several diseases to the individual characteristics of 
      each patient. In oncology, iron oxide nano-biomaterials (NBMs) have become a 
      promising biomedical product in targeted drug delivery as well as in magnetic 
      resonance imaging (MRI) as a contrast agent and magnetic hyperthermia. The 
      combination of diagnosis and therapy in a single nano-enabled product (so-called 
      theranostic agent) in the personalized nanomedicine has been investigated so far 
      mostly in terms of local events, causes-effects, and mutual relationships. 
      However, this approach could fail in capturing the overall complexity of a 
      system, whereas systemic approaches can be used to study the organization of 
      phenomena in terms of dynamic configurations, independent of the nature, type, or 
      spatial and temporal scale of the elements of the system. In medicine, complex 
      descriptions of diseases and their evolution are daily assessed in clinical 
      settings, which can be thus considered as complex systems exhibiting 
      self-organizing and non-linear features, to be investigated through the 
      identification of dynamic feedback-driven behaviors. In this study, a Systems 
      Thinking (ST) approach is proposed to represent the complexity of the theranostic 
      modalities in the context of the personalized nanomedicine through the setting up 
      of a stock-flow diagram. Specifically, the interconnections between the 
      administration of magnetite NBMs for diagnosis and therapy of tumors are fully 
      identified, emphasizing the role of the feedback loops. The presented approach 
      has revealed its suitability for further application in the medical field. In 
      particular, the obtained stock-flow diagram can be adapted for improving the 
      future knowledge of complex systems in personalized nanomedicine as well as in 
      other nanosafety areas.
CI  - Copyright (c) 2021 Cazzagon, Romano and Gonella.
FAU - Cazzagon, Virginia
AU  - Cazzagon V
AD  - Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, University Ca' 
      Foscari of Venice, Venice, Italy.
FAU - Romano, Alessandra
AU  - Romano A
AD  - Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems, University Ca' Foscari of 
      Venice, Venice, Italy.
AD  - Scuola Superiore di Catania, Universita degli Studi di Catania, Catania, Italy.
FAU - Gonella, Francesco
AU  - Gonella F
AD  - Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems, Ca' Foscari University of 
      Venice, Venice, Italy.
AD  - Research Institute for Complexity, University Ca' Foscari of Venice, Venice, 
      Italy.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20210722
PL  - Switzerland
TA  - Front Bioeng Biotechnol
JT  - Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology
JID - 101632513
PMC - PMC8339728
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - complex systems
OT  - iron oxide nano-biomaterials
OT  - nanotechnology
OT  - personalized nanomedicine
OT  - system thinking
OT  - theranostic
COIS- The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any 
      commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential 
      conflict of interest.
EDAT- 2021/08/10 06:00
MHDA- 2021/08/10 06:01
PMCR- 2021/01/01
CRDT- 2021/08/09 06:41
PHST- 2021/05/14 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2021/06/22 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2021/08/09 06:41 [entrez]
PHST- 2021/08/10 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2021/08/10 06:01 [medline]
PHST- 2021/01/01 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 10.3389/fbioe.2021.709727 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2021 Jul 22;9:709727. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2021.709727. 
      eCollection 2021.