Tuning the properties of inorganic nanomaterials for theranostic applications in infectious diseases: Carbon nanotubes, quantum dots, graphene, and mesoporous carbon nanoparticles

Carbon-based inorganic nanomaterials (CINMs) which include carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene quantum dots (GQDs), graphene (G), graphene oxide (GO), reduced graphene oxide (rGO), and mesoporous carbon nanoparticles (MCNPs) have gained significant interest in biomedical application. The unique geometries (i.e., dimensions: 0D, 1D, 2D, 3D), chemical functionality/surface chemistry, and tunable physical properties of the CINMs make more interesting materials for theranostic applications. These properties of CINMs endowed their use in the delivery of therapeutics (drug/gene/biomolecules) for therapy and diagnostics (imaging/tracking) as an agent for cells and tissue imaging. In this chapter, we will highlight the recent advancement of CINMs and their tunable structure for various drug delivery and optical properties for imaging cells and tissues using different imaging modalities. Furthermore, we will summarize the CINMs role and promising applications for theranostic applications in infectious diseases such as tuberculosis (TB), influenza (H1N1), Ebola virus disease (EVD), Middle East respiratory syndrome virus (MERS), severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and other infectious diseases and also discuss the future perspectives to find the desirable platforms.