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PHARMACY
ABSTRACT
Twentieth century has opened up new horizons towards its ending, in the form of
leading edge technologies i.e., information technology, bio technology, communication
technology. However, the advantages of these technologies are often over shadowed by
the large gap that they left between the rich and poor in many ways in the recent past,
Nanotechnology is fast emerging as a solution to the problems of mankind and is
believed by the experts as a promising tool to bring human life back to its enjoyable form
abridging the gaps left over by other technologies.
This paper brings in a detail report on the evolution and scope of Nanotechnology and reviews
its wide range of applications with special emphasis on pharmaceutical applications like drug delivery,
cancer therapy, nanoparticle targeting and distribution etc.
INTRODUCTION:-
One fine day, perhaps very soon from now, a patient’s blood drops will be put on a piece
of plastic of a coins size, in a remote village of a developing country like ours. Within
minutes, fill diagnostic examination will be completed and the sample will be analyzed
for infectious and chronic diseases malaria, cancer, HIV etc. That remarkable piece of
plastic is called a “lab on a chip”! This may be attributed to the then “latest
developments” in medicine in fact the credit should to the field of ‘technology’ and in
particular ‘nanotechnology’
Any Manufactured products are made from atoms. The properties of those
products depend on how those atoms are arranged. If we rearrange the atoms in coal we
can make diamond. If we rearrange the atoms in sand (and add a few other trace
elements) we can make computer chips. Before the advent of nanotechnology
manufacturing methods are very crude at the molecular level. Casting, grinding, milling
and even lithography move atoms in great thundering statistical herds. It’s like trying to
make things our of LEGO blocks with boxing gloves on your hands. Yes, you can push
the LEGO blocks into great heaps and pile them up, but you can’t really snap them
together the way you’d like.
Nanotechnology is a relatively new field will let us take off the boxing gloves,
we’ll be able to snap together the fundamental building blocks of nature easily,
inexpensively and is most of the fundamental buildings block of nature easily, essential if
we are to continues the revolution, new generation of product that are cleaner stronger,
lighter, and more precise can be obtained not only in any single field but each and every
field especially in the field of medicine.
What is nanotechnology?
Nanotechnology is not anew subject. It is rather an extension of science and
technologies that have already been in development for many years and it is a logical
progression of the work that has been done to examine the nature of our world at an ever
small scale.
The design characterization, production , and application of structures, devices,
and system by controlled manipulation of size and shape at the nanometer scale (atomic
molecular and macromolecular scale) that produces structures, devices, and systems with
at least one novel/superior characteristic or property.
Brief History:
Application of Nanotechnology:
As stated above the pharmaceutical and health industries rank 4-5th of the top 10
application of nanotechnology.
Pharmaceuticals applications are as listed below
1) Drug Delivery
2) Cancer Therapy
3) Nano particle targeting
4) Prolonged systemic circulation
5) Per oral absorption
6) Ocular delivery
7) DNA delivery
8) Vaccine adjustment
9) Improving wettability of poorly wettable solids.
Drug Delivery:
Nanoparticles have unusual properties that can be used to improve drug delivery.
Where larger particles would have been cleared from the body, cells take up these
nanoparticles because of their size.
Topical Delivery:
Nano Markets also suggests that nanomaterials provide a unique opportunity for
rapid topical
Delivery of active compounds. Given their very small size, nanoparticles are able
to enter human tissues and cells quickly and companies such as Novavax have
already developed regulated topical systems that take advantage of the unique
properties of micellar nanoparticles. Erapeutic genes such as bone morphogenic
protein.
Improving bioavailability:
Liposomes, “fat bodies” in Greek, have been known within the scientific
community for decades. Indeed, the normal human digestion of fats includes our
bodies making these bioavailable by encapsulating them in liposomes (150nm) or
emulsifying them in even smaller micelles (<50 nm). Since 1960’s liposomes
have been recognized as safe and effective carriers of biologically active
ingredients to specific targets with a variety of therapeutic applications. Because
liposomes are uniquely versatile, they have been long been safely utilized in such
diverse applications as pharmaceuticals, cancer therapy, gene manipulation, and
cosmetics.
This device could be delivered and injected into the body to receive, sense,
and transmit limited information about physiological varuables that could identify
a tumor.
Ion flux propulsion might provide mobility of the device. On a smaller scale,
micron size electronic responsive particles could circulate in the blood stream and
receive wireless signals to release drugs, or heat to kill cells, or vibrate to clean
arteries and report their location as the sensor circulation in the body.
A still simpler responsive-material approach is to use micron size particles
functionalized with antibodies to capture cancer cells in the blood, or the particles
could sample fluids from certain areas of the body based on capillarity.