JECET; June – August-2013; Vol.2.No.3, 918-923.
Journal of Environmental Science, Computer Science and Engineering & Technology
An International Peer Review E-3 Journal of Sciences and Technology
Available online at www.jecet.org Engineering & Technology
Research Article
JECET; June – August 2013; Vol.2.No.3, 918-923. 918
Vital Repercussion of Nano Technology:
A Biomedical Approach
1Shaifali Jain, 1Nidhi Sharma, 1Ashu Gautam and 2Ragi Jain2
1Department of EECE, ITM University, Gurgaon (HR); India
2Adina Institute of Science and Technology, Sagar (M.P.) India
Received: 12 August 2013; Revised: 25 August 2013; Accepted: 28 August 2013
Abstract: Nanotechnology is a new area of science and this technology is expected to create innovations in various biomedical applications. Drug delivery, gene therapy, molecular imaging, biomarkers etc. are a few usages and many more are yet to come. The purpose of this paper is to highlight about the various biomedical applications of nanotechnology in use and the future prospective.
Key words: Bio markers, Nano scale, Tissue engineering, lithography.
INTRODUCTION
Nanotechnology is the science of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. It deals with matter measuring 1-100 nm at least in one dimension as defined by National Nanotechnology Initiative. Quantum mechanical effects are very important at this scale. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter or about 1/80,000 of the diameter of a human hair. When a substance is reduced from macro to micro form, the original properties are retained but at the Nano scale chemical and physical properties of a substance are manipulated. Tata Nano although smaller than the conventional cars, retains all the properties of a car hence Nano here is a misnomer. Richard Feynman’s speech called
‘There is plenty of room at the bottom’ in 1959 emphasized this concept - If our small minds, for some convenience, divide this universe into parts, physics, biology, geology, astronomy, psychology
JECET; June – August 2013; Vol.2.No.3, 918-923. 919 and so on – Remember that nature does not know it1. Nanotechnology blurs the boundaries between physics, chemistry and biology.Although nanotechnology seems to be of recent origin, its emergence occurred long ago. The discovery of scanning tunneling microscope and fullerenes in early 1980s converged with the advent of nanotechnology. Eric Drexler in1986 authored the very first book on nanotechnology named Engines of creation- the coming era of Nanotechnology and popularized the term nanotechnology. Nano biotechnology is the combination of biotechnology and nanotechnology.
This hybrid discipline can bring about many innovative applications in the field of medicine.
Application of nanotechnology in health care is the prime focus of many research projects. Drug delivery, tissue engineering, molecular imaging, biomarkers, cancer chemotherapy are a few areas which have been touched by nanotechnology.
MANUFACTURING APPROACHES
Nanotechnology is the engineering of fundamental systems at the molecular scale. The two main approaches in nanotechnology are bottom up approach and top down approach. In bottom up approach materials and devices are built from molecular components which assemble themselves chemically by property of molecular recognition. In the top down approach small objects are constructed from the larger entities without atomic-level control. A number of physical properties like statistical and quantum mechanical effects become pronounced as the size of the system decreases.
Electronic properties of solid are altered with great reductions in particle size known as the quantum size effect .Materials reduced to the Nano scale can show different properties as in the original macro scale for example copper is opaque in macro state but it becomes transparent on Nano scale and chemically inert gold becomes a strong chemical catalyst at Nano scales. Quantum mechanical effects that matter exhibits at the Nano scale makes nanotechnology fascinating.
Top down approach (larger to smaller): In the top down approach, the Nano devices are built piece by piece from larger sized particles. Many technologies based on solid-state silicon methods for fabricating microprocessors are now used for creating Nano devices. Solid –state techniques are also used to create devices known as Nano electromechanical systems (NEMS). Focused ion beams on application of certain gases can be used to remove material or deposit material. Atomic force microscope tip can be used as a Nano scale pen to deposit atoms which is then followed by an etching process to remove material in a top down method. Optical lithography or Nano imprint lithography is top down technique where a bulk material is reduced to Nano scale size.
Bottom up approach (smaller to larger): In bottom-up technique, larger structures are built atom by atom or molecule by molecule. Molecular self-assembly utilizes concepts of molecular recognition to arrange them into some useful conformation. Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is the technique in which the atoms are laid down to build up complex structures and also to build up devices by Spintronics. Atomic force microscope tips can be used as a Nano scale write head to deposit a chemical upon a surface in a desired pattern known as dip pen nanolithography. These techniques are used in manufacturing pharmaceuticals.
BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS OF NONMATERIAL
Nano products for biomedical use are technically difficult to manufacture. Long-term safety issues and the risk/benefit ratio particularly in terms of application with the human body are equally important. This technology is expected to create innovations and play a vital role in various biomedical applications like drug delivery, gene therapy, molecular imaging, biomarkers and biosensors.
JECET; June – August 2013; Vol.2.No.3, 918-923. 920 Nano DNA technology: DNA nanotechnology utilizes the property of specificity of Watson-Crick base pairing to construct structures out of DNA and nucleic acids. This DNA tetrahedron is an example of artificially designed nanostructure made in the field of DNA nanotechnology .The self- assembled oligomers consisting of streptavidin and double-stranded DNA can be converted into supramolecular Nano circles2, 3.The immune PCR method DNA-streptavidin conjugates can be used to manufacture new immunological reagents for trace analysis of protein and other antigens4, 5. DNA in the form of nanoparticles can be used to transfect post mitotic cells for gene therapy6.
Drug Delivery: The most important clinical application of nanotechnology is in pharmaceutical development. The advent of new drugs known as target specific drug therapies or “smart drugs7.”
These new drugs have fewer side effects and are more effective than traditional therapies due to controlled release, drug targeting and salvage of drugs with low bioavailability8, 9. Nano machines administer drugs at the cellular level that is to peculiar diseased sites and hence making treatment more accurate and precise10.Carbon nanotubes can be used for drug delivery inside or on the surface of the human body. Nano-powders for anticancer applications are already available. Cosmetics based on quantum dots as well as Nano-crystalline materials such as zinc oxide are being used for its UV absorbing properties to manufacture transparent sun screens. Silver nanoparticles and zinc nanoparticles are used as anti-microbial agents when incorporated in coatings over surgical instruments, fibers, polymers, first aid bandages, surgical drapes, soaps and textiles. Nano scale capsules are so designed that they break down and release drugs at controlled rates. The differential release in certain environments, such as an acid medium, and to promote uptake in neoplastic tissue versus normal tissues11. A lot of research is now focused on creating novel polymers and exploring specific drug-polymer combination.
Nanoparticles as Bio makers in cancer: Nanoparticles are used for detecting, diagnosing and treating various types of cancers. They can be used for both quantitative and qualitative detection of tumor cells. In single colour flow cytometry, Streptavidin –coated fluorescent polystyrene fluo spheres (green fluorescence) and trans fluo spheres (red fluorescence) can be used to detect the epidermal growth factor receptor in skin cancers12.Nano harvesting agents like gold particles can be injected into the blood or added to the collected blood samples to soak up and amplify the bound and complex biomarkers13, 14. Contrast agents can be loaded onto nanoparticles for tumour diagnosis purposes. Labelled colloidal particles could be used as radio diagnostic agents. Functional bimetallic nanostructures from gold nanoparticles and antibodies can be used to kill tumour cells. Photodynamic therapy is another non-invasive technique of destroying tumour cells .Currently used for ocular tumours.
Nanotechnology in measurement of dissolved oxygen: Measurement of dissolved oxygen is of vital importance as oxygen is the major metabolites in aerobic systems. Measurement of dissolved oxygen has medical, industrial and environmental applications. Optical PEBBLE (Probes encapsulated by biologically localized embedding) Nano sensors have been developed for measuring dissolved oxygen using organically modified silicate (Ormosil) nanoparticles as a matrix15.The PEBBLE sensor are excellent in terms of their reversibility and stability to leaching and long term storage. A real-time monitoring of changes in the dissolved oxygen due to cell respiration in a closed chamber was made by gene gun delivered PEBBLE. This sensor is now being applied for simultaneous intracellular measurements of oxygen and glucose15.
Tissue engineering (Prosthesis and implants): Tissue engineering is the creation of new tissues in vitro followed by surgical implantation in the body. Alternatively normal repair can be stimulated in situ using artificially constructed cells or living cells injected in the damaged area. Nanotechnology
JECET; June – August 2013; Vol.2.No.3, 918-923. 921 will aid in the formation of truly bio artificial tissue that could be used for the regeneration or replacement of the lost body parts. Nanostructure materials can also be used to synthesize electronic eyes, ears, limbs and nerves Hydroxyapatite used for bone replacement is reasonably advanced16, 17. These materials could be personalized by tailoring them to patient genotype and phenotype to optimize intervention at the earliest stage in the course of disease expression18 .Nanotechnology also has applications in the tissue engineering field, helping people who are in need of new bones, teeth, or other body tissues by replacing damaged or missing tissue with an equivalent material. The biological material is introduced into a mould to produce a body part with a specific shape. The respirocyte proposed by Freitas is a man-made red blood cell theoretically capable of providing oxygen more effectively than an erythrocyte19. It could replace defective natural red cells in blood circulation for example in sickle cell anaemia. Other applications are that it can be used as a blood substitute.
Diagnostics and imaging (Nano robots): An important application of nanotechnology in field of medical diagnostics is Nano robots. Nano robots implanted in the human body monitor blood levels of different hormones, enzymes, electrolytes etc and record this data in its memory. Nano robots would monitor these features in greater detail than the conventional laboratory techniques. Screening the blood sample for viruses with the help of Quantum Dots is another Nano application20. Quantum dots used in conjunction with MRI can produce high contrast images of tumours. We can rightly call these lab-on-a-chip diagnostic techniques .It could allow physicians in future a fast diagnosis tool to detect the presence of disease even before the symptoms appear. Biosensor used to identify bacteriological infections in bio warfare applications has been developed for the American army. The gold nanoparticles and antibodies are applied as diagnostic tools in bio analytics
CONCLUSION
Nanotechnology blurs the boundaries between physics, chemistry and biology. Nanotechnology is a new area of science and the technology is expected to create innovations in various biomedical applications. Drug delivery, gene therapy, molecular imaging, biomarkers etc are a few and many more are yet to come. We can imagine a future era where Nano devices will be routinely implanted or injected into the bloodstream for monitoring and repairing the living systems. Drexler had already described the dooms day if hypothetical self-replicating molecular nanotechnology went out of control as “grey goo”. The effects on human health of nanotechnology- based applications are still unknown. Nano- biotechnology could dramatically improve public health, but there is concern over possible unforeseen adverse effects. Therefore studies and monitoring methods are needed to determine what environmental and health risks are associated with Nano-materials and Nano- applications. However, nanotechnology in medicine faces enormous technical hurdles in those long delays and numerous failures are inevitable. Nano products for biomedical use are technically difficult to manufacture. Long-term safety issues and the risk/benefit ratio particularly in terms of application with the human body are equally important.
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*Corresponding Author: Shaifali Jain,
Department of EECE, ITM University, Gurgaon (HR); India .
