Nanomedicine

About: Nanomedicine is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 4287 publications have been published within this topic receiving 200647 citations.

Inorganic nanomaterials as delivery systems for proteins, peptides, DNA, and siRNA

Abstract: With large current interest in nanomedicine, there has been rapid progress during the last couple of years in the understanding of opportunities offered by advanced materials in diagnostics, drug delivery, functional biomaterials, and biosensors, as well as combinations of these, e.g., theranostics. In the present overview, focus is placed on drug delivery aspects of inorganic nanomaterials, notably as carriers for proteins, peptides, DNA, and siRNA. Throughout, an attempt is made to illustrate how structure and interactions affect loading and release of such biomacromolecular drugs in various inorganic delivery systems, and how this translates into functional advantages.

Nanomedicine in GI.

Abstract: Recent advances in nanotechnology offer new hope for disease detection, prevention, and treatment. Nanomedicine is a rapidly evolving field wherein targeted therapeutic approaches using nanotechnology based on the pathophysiology of gastrointestinal diseases are being developed. Nanoparticle vectors capable of delivering drugs specifically and exclusively to regions of the gastrointestinal tract affected by disease for a prolonged period of time are likely to significantly reduce the side effects of existing otherwise effective treatments. This review aims at integrating various applications of the most recently developed nanomaterials that have tremendous potential for the detection and treatment of gastrointestinal diseases.

Doped Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Characterization and Potential Use in Nanomedicine.

Abstract: Smart nanoparticles for medical applications have gathered considerable attention due to an improved biocompatibility and multifunctional properties useful in several applications, including advanced drug delivery systems, nanotheranostics and in vivo imaging. Among nanomaterials, zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) were deeply investigated due to their peculiar physical and chemical properties. The large surface to volume ratio, coupled with a reduced size, antimicrobial activity, photocatalytic and semiconducting properties, allowed the use of ZnO NPs as anticancer drugs in new generation physical therapies, nanoantibiotics and osteoinductive agents for bone tissue regeneration. However, ZnO NPs also show a limited stability in biological environments and unpredictable cytotoxic effects thereof. To overcome the abovementioned limitations and further extend the use of ZnO NPs in nanomedicine, doping seems to represent a promising solution. This review covers the main achievements in the use of doped ZnO NPs for nanomedicine applications. Sol-gel, as well as hydrothermal and combustion methods are largely employed to prepare ZnO NPs doped with rare earth and transition metal elements. For both dopant typologies, biomedical applications were demonstrated, such as enhanced antimicrobial activities and contrast imaging properties, along with an improved biocompatibility and stability of the colloidal ZnO NPs in biological media. The obtained results confirm that the doping of ZnO NPs represents a valuable tool to improve the corresponding biomedical properties with respect to the undoped counterpart, and also suggest that a new application of ZnO NPs in nanomedicine can be envisioned.

Bionanotechnology and Nanomedicine

Abstract: This special issue contains contributions from the broad interdisciplinary fields of bionanotechnology and nanomedicine. Nanotechnology has great promise in biology and medicine. This includes new approaches to fundamental studies, improved methods for detection of protein or nucleic acid-based biomarkers of disease, and new ways to administer drugs or vaccines or enhancing their effects. The tools of nanotechnology provide new insights into mechanisms of normal biological functions and diseases. Novel nanotechnology-based imaging methods reveal structural and functional information at progressively higher levels of resolution, both in vitro, in cells and in organisms. Molecular components of biological systems on their own can be often viewed as nanoscale machines with functions that have been tuned through evolution and with design principles often based on self-assembly and self-organization phenomena. These biological nanomachines can be incorporated into micro- and nanofabricated devices, a merger that yields novel structures and functionalities.