Author: Jaxon Pang
Abstract
Nanotechnology allows for the development and implementation of medicinal usage to operate on the nanoscale. Also being referred to nanomedicine in this field, the application of nanotechnology towards medicinal research has been a result of technological advancements throughout the years which have allowed scientists to develop and improve methods of dealing with various illnesses and diseases. However, recent research has also demonstrated instances of particle toxicity, known as nanotoxicology, stirring concern regarding the clinical use of nanotechnology, causing harm to both hosts and the surrounding environment. This paper will aim to deliver the aspects of nanomedicine with the potential of treating severe illnesses whilst also providing insight into their impacts on the same people and the wider world, and most importantly how some of these social and environmental issues could be potentially solved.
1.0 Introduction and History
The rapidly developing world of the 21st century provides an extensive array of resources in biological and chemical engineering. With this, scientists and researchers have been able to further develop nanotechnology to accommodate the growing difficulty in diagnosing and treating various resistant or incurable diseases. However, the birth of nanotechnology really dated back to 1959, from American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate Richard Feynman, who introduced the concept of nanotechnology at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society, hosted at the California Institute of Technology, where he presented a lecture titled “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom”. He described a vision of using machines to construct smaller machines down to the molecular level, where his hypotheses were eventually proven correct, considering him to be the father of modern nanotechnology. 15 years later, Norio Taniguchi, a Japanese scientist, was the first to use and define the term “nanotechnology” in 1974, being that “nanotechnology mainly consists of the processing of separation, consolidation, and deformation of materials by one atom or one molecule”.
After this discovery, two manufacturing approaches have been developed to interpret the synthesis of these nanostructures: Top-down and Bottom-up, both differing in speed, quality, and cost. The Top-down approach involved the breaking down of material into nano sized material, whilst the Bottom-up approach referred to the buildup of nanostructures from its basis using chemical and physical methods, atom by atom. These concepts essentially formed the fundamental aspects of nanoscience applications and allowed the idea of the build-up of complex machines from individual atoms which can independently manipulate molecules and atoms to produce self-assembly nanostructures, to become a reality.
Recent studies in recent years have highlighted how the implementation of nanotechnology into biomedicine has shown great potential. Examples included using nanoparticles to help with the diagnosis of many human diseases, and even drug delivery and molecular imaging. These achievements via intensive research yielded great results. Remarkably, many medical related products containing nanomaterials are on the market in the United States. These are usually categorised under “nanopharmaceuticals”, which include nanomaterials with the purpose of drug delivery and regenerative medicine. More developed types of nanoparticles included covering antibacterial activities as well. Progress has also been made in the field of nano-oncology. By improving the efficacy of traditional chemotherapy drugs targeting a range of aggressive human cancers, researchers have successfully achieved in targeting the tumour site with several functional molecules such as nanoparticles, antibodies and cytotoxic agents. In this case, studies have shown how nanomaterials can be employed itself to deliver therapeutic molecules to regulate and control essential biological processes such as autophagy, metabolism, anticancer activity, and oxidative stress.1
However, implementing nanoparticles into medicine do have its own set of drawbacks. Due to their specific properties, such as their increased surface area, it results in increased reactivity and biological activity, meaning that there is an increased chance that contact with nanoparticles may cause permanent damage to the central nervous system.2 It is suggested that toxicities are inversely proportional to the size of the nanoparticles, thus nanoparticles in general are more toxic to human health in comparison to larger sized particles of the same chemical substance.3 This makes the risk of infusing nanoparticles into human health greater as while they cause similar effects from other foreign particles injected into a human, such as inflammation or lung cancer, they may be more potent due to their greater surface area.4 All in all, with the huge imbalance between the advantages and disadvantages of incorporating nanotechnology into humans for medicinal applications, it begs the question of whether nanoparticles should really be used in the field of medicine, and the pros and cons from both points of view.
2.0 Background
2.1 The increased incorporation of nanotechnology into medicine
In essence, the utilisation of nanodevices can be used in diagnostics for early and rapid disease identification for immediate medical procedural recommendations. Using nanoparticles to assist in medical diagnosis means that various, undetectable diseases could be discerned as early as possible, and the appropriate medication could be administered to treat the disease before it gets too serious. Even if the detected illness has no effective treatment yet, researchers can use the nanoparticles to test and analyse the disease to conjure a temporary cure, if not a permanent one. Due to its molecular scale, nanotechnology has the potential to revolutionise the field of healthcare diagnostics due to its improved accuracy, sensitivity, and speed of medical tests compared to other diagnostic medical equipment. The needs and applications of nanomaterials in many areas of human endeavours such as industry, agriculture, business, medicine and public health have skyrocketed its popularity. Between 1997 and 2005, investment in nanotechnology research and development by governments around the world soared from $432 million to about $4.1 billion, and the corresponding industry investment exceeded that of the government’s investment by 2005. By 2015, products incorporating nanotechnology contributed to approximately $1 trillion to the global economy, as depicted in Figure 1 by Lux Research:
(Figure 1)5
About two million workers will be employed in nanotechnology industries, and three times that many will have supporting jobs in the future, as predicted by Lux Research.6
The drive for technological development fuels this idea of increased usage of nanoparticles. For example, diagnostic imaging provides a visual interpretation of the interior of an organism, such as organs or tissues. Utilising nanoparticles in diagnostic imaging allows for the enhancement of imaging modalities such as MRIs or computerised tomography scans, making them a lot clearer and accurate. Using nanoparticles can also incorporate the detection of life-threatening diseases such as various cancers quickly at an earlier state to enable timely treatment and prevention. In addition, other biosensors using nanoparticles have been developed which can detect low levels of biomolecules in fluids such as in blood or in urine, once again leading to the facilitating of early detection and management. Similar dimensional applications have been used in the form of nanofluidic devices to isolate and analyse specific cells, proteins, and genetic material to provide rapid and accurate diagnosis of diseases.
Recently, an increase in the association between nanotechnology and drug deliveries have been evident, through various technologies and systems. This correlates with gene therapy. By incorporating nanotechnology into drug delivery, researchers have been able to enable effective and targeted drug delivery with minimal side effects, increasing the therapeutic efficacy of the drugs. Furthermore, by using DNA-based drug delivery, which are drug delivery devices recently introduced, such as DNA guns and DNA vaccines, it also enhances drug delivery by specifically delivering drugs to the target site and reducing the toxicity associated, while simultaneously protecting the DNA molecules from degrading, modifying DNA sequences and correcting genetic mutations to increase the efficiency and safety of gene therapy as well.
In short, with the development of technology in the field of medicine, researchers have taken massive steps in these discoveries to their advantage to produce and research further into nanomedicine to find ways to continue diagnosing and treating diseases. Progress is aiming for maximum efficacy while simultaneously causing minimal side effects and potential harm towards the recipients.7
2.2 Impacts of nanomedicine in humans
Primarily, people have been exposed to various nano-scale materials since childhood, and this new, emerging field of nanotechnology has become another potential threat to human life. Due to their small size, it is much easier for nanoparticles to enter the human body and cross the various biological barriers, hence the possibility of them reaching the most sensitive organs. Scientists have proposed that nanoparticles of size less than 10 nm would act like a gas and can enter human tissues easily, likely to disrupt the cell normal biochemical environment. Animals and human studies have shown that after inhalation, and through oral exposure, nanoparticles are distributed to the liver, heart, spleen, and brains well as to the lungs and gastrointestinal tract. To clear these nanoparticles from the body, components of the immune system are activated, yet research shows that the estimated half-life of nanoparticles in human lungs is about 700 days, posing a consistent threat to the respiratory system. During metabolism, some of the nanoparticles are congregated in the liver tissues. They are more toxic to human health in comparison to larger sized particles of the same chemical substance, and it is usually suggested that toxicities are inversely proportional to the size of the nanoparticles. Due to their physicochemical properties in different biological systems, unpredictable health outcomes of these nanoparticles were eminent to scientists.8
In general, properties such as absorption, distribution, metabolism, and clearance contribute to their toxicological profile in biological systems. Toxicological concerns means that size, shape, surface area, and chemical compounds need to be considered during the manufacture of these nanoparticles, as they can exert mechanisms of cytotoxicity that interfere with cellular homeostasis. The toxicity of nanoparticles also depends on the chemical components on their surfaces. Some metal oxides, such as zinc oxide (ZnO), manganese oxide (Mn3O4), and iron oxide (Fe3O4), have intrinsic toxicity potential. Particularly with iron oxide due to its frequent usage in nanomedicine. Nanoparticles made from these metal oxides in general can induce cytotoxic effects, meaning they cause harm to cells. However, these adverse effects are often very useful in cancer cell therapies, so it is not completely destructive. Another chemical component investigated in the context of nanoparticle toxicity is silver (Ag), as it can be widely used and is easily found in the environment. The cytotoxic effects of silver nanoparticles include induction of stress, DNA damage, and apoptosis, which is essentially the elimination of unwanted cells.9
The PM10 Literature, which is the largest database on nanoparticle toxicity that originated from inhalation, highlights the particle terminology in relation to ambient effects. The data is provided in the following table, labelled Table 1:
(Table 1)10
PM10 particles are particles with diameters with 10 micrometers or less, having proven to be a powerful drive for research with nanoparticles. Due to their potential toxicity and small size, when breathed they penetrate the lungs. High concentrations of exposure to this could lead to effects such as coughing, wheezing, asthma attacks, bronchitis, high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes and even premature death.11 The table gives insight into the difference in toxicity of engineered nanoparticles. Most of the PM10 mass is considered to be non-toxic and so the idea that there are components within PM10 which drives the pro inflammatory effects have risen, making other particles like CDNP (Combustion Derived Nanoparticles) to be a much more likely candidate, more on that in Section 2.3.
The higher numbers of nanoparticles used, in addition to their small size, suggests that they each have a larger surface area per unit mass, or a larger surface area to volume ratio. Particle toxicology suggests that for toxic particles generally, increased particle surface equals to increased toxicity. Substantial toxicological data and limited data from epidemiological sources also support the contention that nanoparticles in PM10 are important drivers of such adverse effects as well. These adverse effects include, but are not limited to, respiratory diseases such as cardiovascular disease, or inflammations in the interior such as pulmonary inflammation. This could result in changes in membrane permeability, which may in turn impact the potential for particles to distribute beyond the lung. Such instances include the impairing of vascular function after the inhalation of diesel exhaust pipes. The downside of these data collected is that it is still limited and not all studies of nanoparticles have shown significant translocation from the lung to the blood. In the past decade, the most striking effects of nanoparticles have been observed and recorded, and is displayed in Table 2, along with the particle type which has been tested with:
(Table 2)12
The key difference between the dangers in nanoparticles and “traditional” particles is that due to its reduced volume and size, they simply would be more potent to cause similar effects. Several of these effects are just quantitatively different from fine particles. The other large problem is that the introduction of nanoparticles also gave rise to new types of effects not seen previously in larger particles. For instance, mitochondrial damage in ambient nanoparticles, infections through olfactory epithelium in manganese dioxide, gold, and carbon substances, platelet aggregation from single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) and latex carboxylic acids, and cardiovascular effects from PM particles and SWCNTs.13
Other reported risks of nanoparticles are summarised in Table 3:
(Table 3)14
Drawing attention back to iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles, these nanoparticle compounds have been used in drug delivery and diagnostic fields for a duration of time now. These nanoparticles bioaccumulate in the liver and other organs in different organ systems. In vivo studies have shown that after entering the cells, iron oxide nanoparticles remain in cell organelles such as endosomes and lysosomes, release into cytoplasm after decomposing, and contribute to cellular iron poll. Magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles have been observed to accumulate in the liver, spleen, lungs, and brain after inhalation, showing its ability to cross the blood brain barrier. Research shows that the toxic effects are exerted in the form of cell lysis, inflammation, and blood coagulation.15 The exposure of cells to a high dose of iron oxide nanoparticles leads to the formation of excess reactive oxygen species (ROS), which is essentially a type of unstable molecule which contains oxygen in its cell and can easily react with other molecules in the cell. This can affect the normal cell with corresponding apoptosis or cell death. Similar metals like iron, zinc, magnesium, etc. also negatively impact certain genes associated with age related proteins and longevity, and hence, could potentially be detrimental.16 Reduced cell viability (healthiness) has been reported as one of the most common toxic effects of iron oxide nanoparticles in in vitro studies. Iron oxide nanoparticles coated with different substances have shown varying cell viability results. For instance, the toxicity of the tween-coated supermagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, which has 30 nm in diameter, on murine macrophage cells, has been reported that low concentration of these iron oxide nanoparticles (ranging between 25 -200 µg/mL for 2 hours of exposure) shows an increase in cell toxicity in comparison to high concentrations (ranging between 300 – 500 µg/mL for 6 hours of exposure). Dextran-coated iron oxide nanoparticles, which are a biocompatible material extensively used in biomedical applications to coat nanoparticles to prevent agglomeration and toxicity, still yielded results of varying degrees in cell toxicity after 7 days of incubation despite this added protection.17 Overall, this highlights how the cytotoxicity in metal components in nanoparticles makes their application in medicinal use to be dangerous for the patient.
2.3 - Impacts of nanotechnology on the environment
Unfortunately, the implementation of nanotechnology in medicine, although aims to target organisms, would have adverse side effects that aren’t limited to the organism itself. The process of manufacturing these nanomaterials, results in these nanoparticles entering the environment through intentional releases as well as unintentional releases such as atmospheric emissions and solid or liquid waste streams from production facilities. Furthermore, nanoparticles used in other products such as paint, fabric, or personal and healthcare products also enter the environment proportional to their usage. Especially in today’s economy, the purchasing of these cosmetic items and beauty products are at an all-time high. More of that in Section 2.4. Emitted nanoparticles would ultimately be deposited on land and water surfaces. Nanoparticles on land have the potential to contaminate soil and migrate into surface and ground waters. These particles in solid wastes, wastewater effluents, or even accidental spillages can be transported to other aquatic systems by wind or rainwater runoff, severely damaging ecosystems and other natural habitats, simultaneously destroying the homes of other living organisms and possibly the organisms themselves as well. However, the biggest release in the environment tends to come from spillages associated with the transportation of manufactured nanomaterials from production facilities and other manufacturing sites, with the aim of intentional releases for environmental applications.
Once again, exposure through inhalation occurring is a leading factor of nanoparticle dangers. Airborne particles composed of nanomaterials with miniscule sizes may agglomerate into larger particles or longer fibre chains, changing their properties and potentially impacting their behaviour in the indoor and outdoor environments as well. This would in turn affect the way they’d affect the human body after exposure and entry.18
CDNPs are also an important component that drives the adverse effects of environmental particulate air pollution. Combustion-derived nanoparticles originate from several sources such as diesel soot, welding fume, carbon black and coal fly ash. Besides affecting people by inducing oxidative stress and exerting genotoxic effects, their components are an environmental and occupational hazard. Diesel exhaust particles are the most common CDNP in urban environmental air and in environmental pollution. Pulverised coal combustion is a common and efficient method of coal burning in power stations. The pulverised coal is blown into the furnace and burned off producing a fly ash emission. While this particulate emission is usually controlled and moderated, these control methods are not 100% effective, and some particles are still released into the environment.19
On of the largest problems with this is that there is a large gap in the literature of research between nanotoxicology in humans and in the environment. Out of the 117 included studies, by BMC Public Health, only 5 had assessed the environmental impact of exposure to nanoparticles. The significant gap in the scientific literature has been highlighted by multiple authors. With the growing production and usage of nanoparticles, undoubtedly this has gradually led to a diversification of emission resources into both the aquatic and soil environment. As the release of nanoparticles into the environment primarily enter during its production, during application, and disposal of products containing nanoparticles as stated previously, these emissions occur both indirectly and directly to the environment. Nevertheless, the most prominent way in which nanoparticles are released is during the application phase and afterwards, the disposal phase. Studies have shown that only about 2% of the production volume is emitted. Further of use of biomarkers such as soil samples and soybean seeds have been used as natural checks and to determine the toxicity of the environment.20
The following study, released in papers by Medline, ScienceDirect, Sage Journals Online, Campbell Collaboration, Cochrane Collaboration, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, Google, and Google Scholar, includes reviews from 23 countries across several continents, the majority originating from Europe and Central Asia. Reportedly the United States had the highest number of publications, followed by China, India, and Saudi Arabia. Yet most of the studies focused on assessed impact on human health, while only 5 studies focused on assessed effects on the environment, and a shocking 3 studies on both human health and environmental impact. This can be depicted in Figure 2:
(Figure 2)21
The studies investigated the environmental and human health effects from inorganic-based nanoparticles, as well as carbon-based nanoparticles. What is more concerning is the fact that attention was diverged unequally, focusing more on the human health aspect in comparison to their impacts on the surrounding environment as well. As a result, despite knowing that most nanoparticles are toxic to some extent on their surfaces, less research has been conducted to determine effectively how to reduce this toxicity to make them more compatible to the environment and negatively impact it less.
2.4 - The shaping of the economy and the wider world
Science is a social endeavour. Inevitably, it will be tangled up with socioeconomic issues. Whilst science logistically would be operating outside the controversial hand of politics, in the end, innovation in the scientific field affects these economic considerations and inequalities. Technology itself is neutral; its capacity and potent can be operated by anyone. Yet none of these technological advancements are impartial because in every usage of this, there will always be a motive and a need for profit.22
Unfortunately, the method of producing and manufacturing advanced technologies such as nanoparticles is not a simple, nor cheap process. Naturally, that would mean that using it for targeted drug delivery and other utilisations would be an expensive method of medical treatment. For instance, the business of nanomedicine had an estimated value of $53 billion USD in 2009. By 2025, the industry is projected to reach a total market value of around $334 billion USD. The increasing number of new generation nanotherapeutics will soon enter the market, upping the market value overall. According to the Grand View Research Report, the United States remains the leader in the nanomedicine industry, owning 46% of the total international nanomedicine revenue in 2016, followed by Europe, including major industries in the market such as Pfizer.23 With western countries being primarily the driving force in the advancement of technological development, the distribution of such equipment would be heavily tilted to one side. Less fortunate countries would unlikely be seeing the implementation of nanotechnology in medicine as opposed to other high-income countries. Personalised medicine, for things such as rare diseases, further creates obstacles for drug development, which once again, is more prominent in the countries lacking sufficient healthcare. As a result, large biotech companies find these places and medicine less financially rewarding to invest in compared with universal drugs. Furthermore, nanotechnology connotes the use of the most advanced technological tools for medical ends, for which reason discussions over its socioeconomic effects are of heavy significance, even though they are thoroughly missing from today's discourse. This gives rise to ethical issues, highlighting how geopolitics come into play with the handling of medicine. Especially with countries in power and the wealth disparities, this emphasises the detrimental gap between the rich and the poor and thus the accessibility of nanomedicine around the world as well.24
3.0 - Methodology
Fortunately, the technological advancements we benefit from today has allowed scientists and researchers to have developed better nanotechnology and refined flaws. These include, but are not limited to, using different metal compounds and compositions in nanoparticles to reduce toxicity, even more precise nanoparticles for precision in disease diagnosis and prevention, making them more biocompatible, and DNA specialised nanoparticles.
One such example is theranostic nanoparticles. Theranostic particles are essentially multifunctional nanomaterial systems, well designed and specialised in specific and personalised disease management by combining diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities into one biocompatible and biodegradable nanoparticle. The engineering of theranostic particles can be done through multiple ways. For instance, loading therapeutic drugs like anti-cancer drugs into existing imaging nanoparticles such as quantum dots or iron oxide nanoparticles, or engineering unique nanoparticles such as porphysome technology with intrinsic imaging and therapeutic properties, alongside modifications with polyethylene glycol and different targeting ligands to improve blood circulation half-life and tumour active targeting capability. This helps solve the problems with nanoparticles accumulating in tumour tissue based on its enhanced permeability and retention effect. Tumour actively targeted theranostic nanoparticles are being developed by further conjugating different targeting ligands to recognise and selectively bind to receptors overexpressing on certain tumour cell surfaces, such as tumour vasculature targeting, which has been considered a good, applicable approach for most functioned organic and inorganic nanomaterials. The targeting ligands could include antibodies, small peptides or molecules, engineered proteins, etc. In addition, theranostic nanoparticles have been developed to target other receptors, such as prostate-specific membrane antigens (PSMA) in prostate cancer and the urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) in pancreatic cancer. Theranostic nanoplexes, which contain multi-treating therapy imaging reporters like radioisotopes, and a PSMA-targeting component, was developed to deliver small interfering RNA (siRNA) and a prodrug enzyme to PSMA-expressing tumours. This nanoplex was investigated using the non-invasive multi-treating therapy imaging to evaluate its diagnostic aspects of PSMA imaging, as well as its conversion of prodrug to cytotoxic drug. Results showed that there was no significant immune response or obvious toxicity to the liver or kidney that had been observed. However, the downside to theranostic nanoparticles is that ideally, they must be able to quickly and selectively accumulate in targets of interest, be able to report biochemical and morphological characteristics of diseases, efficiently deliver the sufficient number of drugs on demand without damaging healthy organs and be cleared from the body within hours or biodegraded into nontoxic byproducts. Even though numerous types of both organic and inorganic theranostic nanoparticles have been developed in the last decade for treating diseases such as cancer, none of them has satisfied all the specified criteria yet.25
CRISPR/Cas systems are also a prime example of how nanotechnology has been effectively implemented in medicine. CRISPR is a revolutionised technology with the ability to cleave target nucleic acids with high precision and programmability. However, issues such as insufficient cellular entry, degradation in biological media, and off-target effects makes CRISPR unreliable at times. By incorporating nanotechnology into this, it enables and improves intracellular and targeted delivery, stability, stimulus-responsive activation in target tissues, and adjustable pharmacological properties. Nanotechnology can also enhance CRISPR-mediated detection by increasing sensitivity, facilitating simpler readouts during implementations, as well as reducing time to readout.26 The Cas-9 enzyme is a large ribonucleoprotein (RNP), which helps with transcription, translation and regulating gene expression and regulating the metabolism of RNA. The incorporation of nanotechnology with Cas systems provides a powerful new means for the fast, specific, and ultrasensitive detection of protein biomarkers, whole cells, and small molecules, in addition to nucleic acid targets. Using nanomaterials as signal readouts can enhance detection sensitivity or reduce the need for special equipment for signal detection.27
Nanorobots are a relatively new technology that contain small monitors that allow them to navigate to specific parts of the body. They have had primary applications so far as drug delivery agents. One example of this is the “origami nanorobot” developed by researchers at Arizona State University, consisting of a flat sheet of synthetic DNA that is coated in a blood-clotting enzyme and can be folded into various shapes. It is injected into the bloodstream and programmed to seek out tumour cells. When located, it attaches to their surface and injects them with a blood-clotting enzyme, starving the tumour cells of the blood it needs to survive on. Further research carried by ASU showed promising therapeutic potential from the way it overall prevented the spread of metastasis in cancer. “Smart pills” are also utilised as nanoscale sensors that are designed to detect the presence of diseases long before the symptoms may become apparent to the present. Invented by Jerome Schentag, a professor of pharmaceutic science at the University of Buffalo, it aimed to electronically track and instruct the delivery of a drug to a predetermined location in the gastrointestinal tract. In addition, the built in miniature camera helps monitor the bowels or colon to detect internal bleeding. Data collected by the pill is transmitted wirelessly to a device controlled by a patient, allowing for continuous monitoring of internal health conveniently.28
Finally, Green Nanotechnology-Driven Drug Delivery Assemblies aim to help reduce the toxicity of the nanoparticles used, to benefit both the target organisms and the surrounding environment. By employing the concept of green chemistry and green engineering into the manufacturing of nanobiomedicine, the aim is to create eco-friendly nanoassemblies with less environmental and health related negative impacts. As a result, the combination of green nanomaterials with drugs, vaccines, or diagnostic markers will hopefully be the next step to propel the field of green nanomedicine. Many inorganic nanoparticles have been introduced to the market and manufactured on the principles of green engineering and nanotechnology. For example, gold and silver nanoparticles are less toxic compared to other metals like copper and zinc. Quantum dots, organic polymeric nanoparticles, mesoporous silica nanoparticles, dendrimers, and nanostructuredi lipid carriers have also been used. These nanomaterials are attached with drugs, DNA molecules, or specific enzymes, proteins or peptides for further handling in nanomedicine purposes. Research now continues to establish the differences and effectiveness in the yield of nanomedicine produced using normal bioengineering compared to manufacturing through elaborative green bioengineering principles. This will allow scientists to opt for the best manufacturing conditions for nanoparticles in the future. Especially with DNA molecules, using DNA based drug delivery devices in nanotechnology aims to increase personalised targeted drug therapies to further improve diagnosis and target drug delivery.29
Conclusion
In summary, the innovations in technology over the years have undoubtedly brought into light newer and improved methods to diagnose and treat patients in the medical field. The progress made with nanotechnology is proof of its immense potential and its history of successes highlights its usefulness and capabilities. Most vitally, its ability to act as a drug carrier for specific drug delivery is what makes the usage of nanotechnology so special and powerful, especially in cases when dealing with diseases and illnesses which are difficult to cure, such as cancer. By being able to provide detailed visualisations of organism interiors, to assist in genetic modification and editing genetic information, the versatility of nanoparticles is something that shouldn’t be overlooked either. As discussed above, however, the drawbacks of the implementation of nanoparticles in medicine must not be overlooked either. Nanotoxicology has been proven time and time again for its setbacks, and the way it can affect both organisms and the surrounding environment brings into question whether the usage of nanoparticles is really the best strategy in the medicinal field currently. Not to mention the extreme costs for this utilisation, which, amongst many other things, contribute to the increasing economic gap between income classes. Nevertheless, history has shown how the relentless efforts of scientists and researchers have overcome obstacles in the medicinal field, and undoubtedly, these drawbacks provided by nanotechnology would be resolved in future years, as I strongly believe the potential of using nanotechnology for targeted drug delivery is too much to pass up on, and I think many others would feel the may.
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