These are particles that are between 1 to 100 nanometers in size. At this scale, they exhibit unique physical and chemical properties that are different from bulk materials of the same composition. Their small size allows them to interact with biological systems in significantly different ways than larger particles. Some of the properties that emerge at the nanoscale include higher surface area to volume ratio, novel optical properties, and super para-magnetism.
Synthesis of nanoparticles
There are various techniques available for synthesizing nano material depending on the material and desired properties. Some common methods include chemical coprecipitation, sol-gel processing, hydrothermal processing, laser vaporization, chemical vapor deposition, and biological synthesis using bacteria, fungi, yeast or plant extracts. Chemical methods are widely used due to their ability to control composition, shape, and size of nanoparticles. However, green chemical methods utilizing plants or microbes are gaining popularity due to their environmental friendliness.
Applications in healthcare
<p>Due to their small size and unique properties, nano material have shown tremendous potential for various healthcare applications. Some of their uses in medicine include drug delivery, imaging, tissue engineering and disease diagnosis. Nanoparticles can effectively encapsulate and deliver drugs, proteins, nucleic acids or other bioactive agents specifically to target diseased cells while avoiding healthy tissues. This allows for lower doses, fewer side effects and ability to cross biological barriers. Nano material are also effective contrast agents for advanced imaging techniques like magnetic resonance imaging and photoacoustic tomography. Their use enables early detection of tumors and micrometastases.
Drug delivery
Nanoparticles serve as an excellent vehicle for drug delivery applications. They can encapsulate both hydrophobic and hydrophilic drugs and release them in a controlled manner at the targeted site. This protects drugs from early degradation and allows simultaneous delivery of multiple agents. Targeted drug delivery using functionalized nano material is being extensively researched for cancer and other diseases. Functionality can be imparted by attaching targeting ligands specific to receptors overexpressed on diseased cells. Nano material can also facilitate oral delivery of protein and peptide drugs which normally get degraded in the gastrointestinal tract.
Tissue engineering
Nanoparticles show promise for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications. They can mimic components of the extracellular matrix at the nanoscale level and facilitate cell adhesion, growth and proliferation. Nano material are being used to develop nanocomposite scaffolds that better resemble native tissues. They also serve as carriers to deliver growth factors, genes and cells to promote neovascularization and tissue regeneration. Antibacterial nano material are being embedded in wound dressings, sutures and implants to prevent surgical site infections.
Diagnostics
Highly sensitive detection of biomarkers for early disease diagnosis is one of the important areas Nano material are contributing to. Nanoparticles modified with oligonucleotides, antibodies or affinity ligands can specifically identify and quantify disease-related nucleic acids, proteins or small molecules. This has led to the development of rapid, affordable biosensors for point-of-care testing. Nano material are also serving as multimodal imaging probes for techniques like magnetic resonance imaging, photoacoustic imaging and fluorescence imaging that help detect cancers and other pathologies at the cellular and even molecular level.
In conclusion, due to their tunable properties and ability to interface with biological systems, nanoparticles are emerging as a promising tool with applications spanning drug delivery, diagnostics and regenerative medicine. Continued research in controlled synthesis and functionalization of nanoparticles will help realize their full potential to transform healthcare.
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1. Source: Coherent Market Insights, Public sources, Desk research
2. We have leveraged AI tools to mine information and compile it