Hello everyone and welcome to this article! This week, we will be discussing nanomedicine.
According to the European Technology Platform on Nanomedicine, nanomedicine is defined as "the use of nanotechnology to achieve innovation in healthcare". In this article, I will explore what this definition means and how nanotechnology can be used in medicine. Finally, I will come to a conclusion about the future of nanomedicine.
As I explained above, nanomedicine involves the use of nanotechnology in healthcare. What this essentially means is 'medicine performed on an extremely small scale'. Due to recent advancements in microscope technology, over the last few decades, we have gained a much better appreciation about how the human body works. In particular, we have seen how many of the biological mechanisms in the human body occur on an incredibly small scale. Nanomedicine aims to exploit this knowledge to deliver more effective and precise treatment. For example, by affecting specific receptors on the cell membranes, we can target key biological mechanisms on specific cells without affecting other parts of the body.
Gold nanoparticles are often used in nanomedicine. This is because of the many unique properties that gold has. For example, gold nanoparticles are biocompatible allowing them to be used safely inside the human body. In addition, since gold is inert, medication involving gold nanoparticles can be stored safely for a long period of time. Further, gold nanoparticles can be easily adapted using other biological molecules, making them incredibly versatile.
There are many fields of medicine which nanomedicine has the potential to revolutionise. This article will focus on the following:
Medical imaging
Diagnostics
Vaccines
Regenerative medicine
Nano-therapeutics
Nanomedicine has many useful applications in medical imaging. This is because nanoparticles can be used as contrast agents when images are taken. Normally, when an MRI image is captured, the computer builds a model of the structures inside the body using a combination of radio waves and magnetic fields. The image generated can be made even more precise by using radioactive dyes, which make certain tissues, blood vessels and tumours appear much more clearly on the image.
While this technique does work well, it can be improved by using nanoparticles instead of organic dyes. This is particularly apparent in the imaging of tumours. Since the nanoparticles are so small and tumours don't have effective drainage systems, radioactive nanoparticles are able to infiltrate tumours better than organic dyes, making the imaging of them much clearer.
In addition, some nanoparticles can glow when they are exposed to ultraviolet light. This means that, during an operation, the surgeon can use ultraviolet light to excite the nanoparticles and make the tumour glow, thus allowing them to remove the tumour much more precisely.
Nanomedicine also has the potential to revolutionise diagnostic medicine. For example, gold nanoparticles have shown significant potential to diagnose prostate cancer. This is because the nanoparticles allow prostate cancer to be seen much more clearly on scans. In addition, these nanoparticles also make prostate tumours much more radiosensitive, thus increasing the effectiveness of radiotherapy. Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in men so any diagnostic tool which increases the number of prostate cancer cases which are caught early is likely to save many lives.
In addition, nanoparticles can also be used in the diagnosis of arthritis, atherosclerosis and many other diseases. The use of nanoparticles in diagnostic medicine is particularly helpful as it could allow diseases to be diagnosed earlier and more accurately. This would greatly improve the quality of life of patients, allowing their disease to be treated effectively before it develops too far. Additionally, as the disease would be treated early, the cost of treatment would also be considerably less.
There is also plenty of research in combining nanotechnology with vaccines, which has the potential to make vaccines much more effective. Due to mass vaccination campaigns in the latter half of the 20th century, millions of people's lives are saved every year. However, vaccines are not perfect. Indeed, after 2 doses of the MMR vaccine, only 97% of people are protected against measles and only 88% are protected against mumps.
While this is very good, nanotechnology has the potential to increase the effectiveness of vaccination. In traditional vaccine production, a person is usually injected with a live/attenuated version of the virus or cellular components. However, because of the unique properties of nanomaterials, vaccines made using nanomaterials can stimulate specific parts of the immune system. Additionally, gold nanoparticles can also be packaged inside a viral vector, which allows them to enter cells more easily.
There are several vaccines in development which involve nanotechnology, including vaccines for hepatitis and tick-borne encephalitis. While these vaccines are still in the initial stages of development, early evidence suggests that they are more effective than their traditional vaccine counterparts. Indeed, in the case of tick-borne encephalitis vaccines, animals injected with the virus had a survival time 10-30% higher than those injected with the traditional vaccine for the disease. Further, while we have known about certain diseases, such as HIV, for several decades, we currently don't have a vaccine for them, suggesting that these viruses may not be suitable for traditional vaccines. If vaccines using nanotechnology are researched further, it is possible that a vaccine for these diseases could be developed.
Nanomedicine can also be used in regenerative medicine, especially for tissue engineering. Tissue engineering is where biological substitutes are used to repair or replace tissues and their functions. As one might imagine, tissue engineering is incredibly complex and faces numerous limitations to its effectiveness.
Due to the nanoparticles unique properties, such as their high biocompatibility and small size, many believe that nanoparticles could prove useful in tissue regeneration. In particular, the can be deposited on biocomposite structures, which can increase growth and reduce the risk of bacterial infections. Nevertheless, this field of nanomedicine is still in its very early stages and much more research is required before nanoparticles can be used effectively in medicine.
Nanoparticles can also be used in drug-delivery systems, which has the potential to greatly revolutionise medicine. This is because, by using nanoparticles, drug delivery can be much more precise, increasing its effectiveness while simultaneously reducing the drug's toxicity, thus making treatment much safer. For example, nanoparticles can be used to facilitate blood glucose management in people who suffer type 2 diabetes. This is due to the fact that nanoparticles containing insulin can be taken via the nasal or oral route, allowing diabetics to manage blood glucose concentrations without using injections.
In conclusion, the future of nanomedicine is very promising. As described in this article, the use of nanotechnology has been proved at least partially successful in medical imaging, diagnostics, vaccines, tissue regeneration and drug delivery systems to improve diagnosis and treatment. Since nanomedicine is only in the early stages of development, with more time and funding, it is likely that nanomedicine will become even more effective. Nevertheless, it should be stressed that, due to its complexity, the development of nanomedicine is likely to be expensive. As such, nanomedicine will need significant investment before any treatments can be used in mainstream medicine.
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