Nanotechnology

in the Medicine
Intro to Nanotechnology

Viktor Valdevitt

Table of Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 2
What is Nanotechnology? ......................................................................................................................... 2
Nanotechnology Applied to Medicine? ........................................................................................................ 3
Nanotechnology and Cancer ..................................................................................................................... 4
Replacement and Organ regeneration ..................................................................................................... 6
Advances in diagnostic thanks to Nanotechnology .................................................................................. 8
How does benefit society? ............................................................................................................................ 9
References .................................................................................................................................................. 10

Introduction
What is Nanotechnology?
Nanotechnology involves the creation, manipulation and use of materials in the
nanometer order (10 ^ 9m) and it applications and fields of chemistry, biology, physics,
engineering and medicine in particular, has led to major breakthroughs in science.
Even though nanotechnology applied to medicine is not a everyday thing, it is an issue
that should be given importance as it is in the research stage

Nanotechnology Applied to
Medicine?
One of the most important branches in which the studies are concentrated, is the
medicine for the complexity of this science. Nanotechnology applied to medicine
provides a new point of view for doctors to treat some diseases.
Thanks to the tools provided by nanotechnology, are emerging great advances in the
treatment of various diseases such as cancer, neurodegenerative diseases,
autoimmune, cardiovascular, etc. Probably one of the most common applications in the
field of therapy, it is the use of nanoparticles as transport vehicles for the controlled
release of drugs. The encapsulation of certain drugs in nanometric systems has proven
in many cases enhance the stability, solubility and biodistribution thereof. In some cases
you can even target the drug to the organ where it wants to act more effectively.
In this manner more effective medications are available and will require a lower dose of
the drug, thus decreasing side effects and improving the quality of life of patients. Such
advances are being used in experimental treatments of cancer using magnetic
nanoparticles or gold which are having good results in the treatment of certain types of
tumors

in

combination

with

conventional

chemotherapy.

Nanotechnology and Cancer

Nanotechnology has the potential to influence research variously cancer. In particular,
this technology can help facilitate research and enhance the study of molecular
imaging, early detection, prevention and treatment of cancer.

Nanotechnology offers a variety of tools able to observe individual cells and track the
movement of cells-and even single-molecules in their environment. The use of these
tools will allow researchers to study, observe and change the multiple systems that fail
in the cancer process.

Nanotechnology has the potential to help clinical researchers to detect cancer at an

early stage. The detection with the use of nanotechnology may allow physicians to see
cells and molecules that are undetectable by conventional imaging methods.
Furthermore, the photoluminescent nanoparticles could help oncologists to visually
distinguish between cancer cells and healthy cells.

Advances driven by the initiatives of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) will facilitate
researchers to identify markers of susceptibility to cancer and precancerous lesions.

Nanotechnology can then be used to create devices able to point when these markers
appear in the body and substances administered to reverse premalignant changes or
destroy cells that could become cancer. Because of its multifunctional capabilities,
nanoscale devices can contain both directed and therapeutic substances to produce
high local concentrations of a given anticancer drug charges.These high local

concentrations have the potential to increase the chemotherapeutic efficacy and to

decrease tumor with a lower dose of the drug. Nanoscale devices also offer the
opportunity to create new therapeutic modalities, combining a diagnostic substance or
exploration with a drug and whether the drug acted in its predetermined target. It may
be able to provide clinicians the ability to calculate how much "time" making the release
of an anticancer drug or multiple drugs administered sequentially regulated or different
body

intervals.

Replacement and Organ regeneration

This is a field of research that seeks to develop substitutes for organs and damaged by
disease or accidents, stimulating repair mechanisms of the human body themselves,
avoiding transplants that require a human donor tissue. The main contributions of
nanotechnology to regenerative medicine are related to the production of new materials
and support systems and the production of bioactive molecules. At present, this field is
focused on developing tissues obtained from the patient's own cells, thereby minimizing
the risk of rejection.
Nanotechnology can play a predominant role in facilitating new materials and
techniques that enable integration of tissues more efficiently by the ability to generate
more conducive microenvironment for tissue regeneration. The main difficulty lies in
finding suitable materials that allow the fabrication of structures that remain active while
the affected organ regenerates the damaged area.

Among the materials that are being used include carbon nanotubes, nanoparticles,
biodegradable polymers nanofibers, nanocomposites, etc.
One of the greatest achievements is the development of biomaterials with ability to
mimic the extracellular matrix, forming a true support, identical to that naturally occurs in
the cells on which they can grow progenitor cells subsequently implanted in the patient
and and repair or replace the damaged organ.

To achieve viable tissues is very important that the support imitate the properties of
natural extracellular environment. Recent discoveries have shown that the external

environment of cells, called extracellular matrix, is hierarchically organized from

complex compounds and protein nanofibers and cells serves to regulate all its essential
functions.

And this is where nanotechnology has much to contribute in the design and
manufacture of nanostructures as carriers for cells, so they are as close as possible to
the natural environment.

Advances in diagnostic thanks to Nanotechnology

On the other hand in the field of diagnostics, nanotechnology is developing new
systems and image analysis, or improve existing, for the detection of diseases in their
early stages in the cellular or molecular level, and ideally the level of a single cell, using
contrast nanodevices and systems.

Early identification permit rapid response capacity and immediate implementation of

appropriate treatment, providing greater chances of cure. This is a breakthrough with
usual clinical analysis techniques, since they require long analysis.

Nanosystems diagnostic can be used in vitro or in vivo. The diagnosis in vivo usually
requires that devices can penetrate the human body to identify and quantify the
presence of a particular pathogen or cancer cell, for example. This involves a number of
problems associated with material compatibility of the device but also requires
sophisticated design to ensure efficacy and minimize side effects. Meanwhile, the in
vitro diagnosis provides greater flexibility of design, as it can be applied in very small
samples of body fluids or tissue, from which one can carry out a specific detection of
pathogens or genetic defects, in very short time, with high precision and sensitivity.
Because of these fundamental differences.

Within the nanodiagnostics, there are two main areas of work: Image and nanosystems
nanobiosensors devices able to detect in real time and with high sensitivity and
selectivity of chemical and biological agents.

How does benefit society?

Nanotechnology is becoming an opportunity of life for future generations. The concepts
of nanotechnology are being applied more sensitive methods of diagnosis, therapy
systems and controlled drug delivery, as well as tools that allow the regeneration of
damaged tissues and organs.

We can see that there is a significant advance in treatment and early detection of
cancer so this disease will no longer be a cause of death in people and could tell that
can become a curable disease.

Besides medicine, nanotechnology has applications in many other fields of science that
meet the objectives of technological progress in general, which is to improve the style
and lifetime of the beings on this planet including all living organisms, not only humans.

References
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<http://health.howstuffworks.com/medicine/modern-technology/goldnanotech1.htm>.
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