Trends in Biotechnology
Volume 26, Issue 8, August 2008, Pages 425-433
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Review
Multifunctional nanoparticles – properties and prospects for their use in human medicine

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2008.04.005Get rights and content

A major aim of medicine has long been the early and accurate diagnosis of clinical conditions, providing an efficient treatment without secondary effects. With the emergence of nanotechnology, the achievement of this goal seems closer than ever. To this end, the development of novel materials and devices operating at the nanoscale range, such as nanoparticles, provides new and powerful tools for imaging, diagnosis and therapy. This review focuses on the significant improvements in performance that nanoparticles offer compared with existing technologies relevant to medicine. Specifically, we address the design of multifunctional nanoparticles as an alternative system for drug and gene delivery, which has great potential for therapy in areas, such as cancer and neuropathologies. Moreover, we discuss the controversy generated by the possible toxic health effects of nanoparticles.

Introduction

Nanotechnology is considered by many as the next ‘big revolution’. This technological leap in controlling materials at the nanoscale has, in the past decade, driven developments enabling the use of nanodevices, such as nanoparticles, that have found applications in fields ranging from electronics and communications, through to optics, chemistry, energy and of course biology. Nanomedicine, the application of nanotechnology to healthcare, holds great promise for revolutionising medical treatments and therapies in areas, such as imaging, faster diagnosis, drug delivery and tissue regeneration, as well as the development of new medical products. Indeed, materials and devices of nanometric dimensions (1–100 nm) are already approved for clinical use and numerous products are being evaluated in clinical trials [1]. However, as discussed later, there are toxicological concerns and ethical issues that accompany nanomedicine that might cast a shadow over the promising future of this emerging field.

This article presents an overview of the current applications of nanoparticles in medicine. In particular, we focus on the development of novel multifunctional nanoparticles and illustrate their potential application in drug and gene delivery for cancer and neuropathological therapy. The current limitations of nanoparticle-based approaches are discussed, with special emphasis given to the lack of knowledge of the toxicological risks associated with the exposure to nanoparticles. Finally, we summarise the future challenges that lie ahead.

Section snippets

Multifunctional nanoparticles

Nanoparticles are constructs that possess unique physical and chemical properties associated with their being of 1–100 nm in size. The general characteristics and composition of nanoparticles are described in Box 1 and are illustrated in Figure 1. Nanometre-sized particles are in the same range of dimension as antibodies, membrane receptors, nucleic acids and proteins, among other biomolecules. These biomimetic features, together with their high surface:volume ratio and the possibility of

Current limitations to the efficacy of nanoparticles

Extensive in vivo application of nanoparticles will require a more exhaustive exploration of the physicochemical and physiological processes occurring in biological environments. For example, it is not yet possible to predict nanoparticle biodistribution according to their physicochemical properties. Moreover, nanoparticle biodistribution can be affected by undesirable interactions with biological systems and molecules, such as proteins, by a process known as opsonisation, or by the mononuclear

Concluding remarks

Although nanomedicine is a relatively new area of biotechnology, the possibilities for new therapies to treat illness and disease seem endless. Nanoparticles are already appearing in commerce as novel tools for molecular imaging, diagnosis and drug delivery formulations [4]. Of note, some nanoparticles have intrinsic therapeutic properties themselves. For example, owing to the multivalent display of ligands on their surface, dendrimers have the ability to block the binding between cells,

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the support of the Networking Research Center on Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN), Barcelona, Spain.

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