The Impact of Nanotechnology on the Future of Medicine and Health Care

May 5, 20238 min read

Updated: Aug 26, 2023

With an infinite scope ranging from pacemakers and nano-elements that directly and specifically target a cancer cell, nano-bubbles that purify wastewater, nano-filtration of heavy metals, and flexible touch screens, there is an endless array of possibilities. Spanning applications in food, robotics, biomedical, biomaterials, energy production, and others, this path that has been explored for only a few decades, but with an enormous speed of experimentation and development.

Nanoscience is the discipline dedicated to the study of the physical, chemical and biological phenomena that occur in matter at the nanometer scale. Nanotechnology involves the creation, manipulation and application of materials, devices and functional systems through the control of matter at the nanoscale (atoms and molecules), and the resulting behavior and material properties are totally new at a certain size threshold (from 1 to 100nm), and can be extraordinarily precise.

On the other side of the coin, the WHO has mentioned that engineered nanoparticles and nanomaterials have raised concerns about unexpected or unwanted effects in interaction with biological systems. As a consequence of the rapid growth of nanotechnology and its extensive applications, knowledge of these aspects is still limited.

History.

It is now known that nanomaterials have been present in human history for hundreds of years: as in Andalusian ceramics with silver and gold glazes containing metallic nanoparticles.

The pioneer who could imagine this was the American physicist and Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman. Who on December 29, 1959 gave his keynote speech presenting processes in which scientists could manipulate individual atoms and molecules, ushering in the era of nanomaterials.

Professor Norio Taniguchi was the person who first referred to this as Nano technology in 1974.

All these ideas took a most interesting turn when advances in optics had reached their highest potential at the end of the 20th century and it seemed impossible to surpass the magnifications that could be achieved by combining lenses. The breakthrough came from physics when in 1981 G. Binnig and H Rohrer created microscopes that used electron beams (tunneling microscopy) instead of the usual light. And for the first time in the history of mankind, the smallest particles that make up matter could be seen. And therefore their relationship with larger particles and replicate or alter their qualities.

In 1985 the discovery of fullerene by Harry K Smalley and Robert Curl (joint Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry in 1996), which is a type of carbon with very interesting properties and which would later be used for graphene tubes or nanotubes. This is when we began to talk about modern nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology was consolidated in the 1990s by the discovery of carbon nanotubes, which are one of its most important components.

In the 21st century it has applications in technology, biomedicine, engineering, pharmacology and a multitude more.

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Fundamental concepts

To finish understanding Nano science and nanomaterials a little more fully let's look at the theory at the "bottom of the room":

A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. In other words, one centimeter contains one million nanometers. It's like comparing a rock to the size of the planet earth.

Nanotechnology manipulates nanomaterials between 1nm and 100nm. These limits are given by the size of the atoms, the smallest being those of Hydrogen, and the upper limit is rather arbitrary, but it is in the size where the change of properties in the materials begins compared to the same material on a macro scale. And main and differential characteristic that makes materials have new properties, and unknown until before nanotechnology.

To have a vision in our mind of these dimensions we can mention several examples:

- The space occupied by Carbon bonds, i.e. the space between atoms of a molecule, is around 0.12 and 0.15 nm.

- A hydrogen atom is 1 nm.

- The double helix of a DNA has a diameter of about 2 nm.

- Bacteria of the genus Mycoplasma, which is the smallest cellular life form is about 2 nm long.

- The diameter of hemoglobin is 5 nm.

- A red blood cell is about 7000nm in diameter and 2000nm thick.

- A human hair is approximately 40,000nm wide.

Nanomaterials: as already mentioned, these are the elements that at nanometer scales have very different properties from their large-scale counterparts, due to their high area/surface and strength/weight ratio and the occurrence of quantum effects. And they are those in which at least one of their three dimensions is smaller than 100nm. They can be classified into:

1. number of dimensions and size less than 100nm.

1.1 One dimension

1.2 Two dimensions: Carbon nanotubes, Inorganic nanotubes, Nano wires, Nano fibers, Biopolymers, Nanoporous.

1.3 Three dimensions: Bulk Chemicals, Fullerenes or Fulerenes, Dendrimers or Dendritic Polymers, Quantum Dots.

2. Number of dimensions and size.

2.1. Nano textured surfaces.

2.2. Nanotubes. Nanoparticles.

3. Timing of their emergence: First and second generation.

There are two ways to construct nanomaterials:

From the bottom up: devices and materials are assembled from molecular components that are joined together by molecular recognition principles. This molecular recognition is important since molecules can be designed in such a way that their specific order or configuration is favored by non-covalent intermolecular forces.

Top-down: they are built from larger materials and are controlled at the atomic level.

We have already mentioned that some phenomena become pronounced as the size decreases, for example "Quantum size effect" that occur in the size range of 1 to 100 nm is the "Quantum Domain", as well as other mechanical, electrical, optical, etc. properties.

According to a study published by the Centre of technology Assessment at the Swiss Science and Technology Council SSTC (TA-SWISS), nanotechnology can be applied in five ways:

Particles with simple structure.
Combined particle systems (structures)
Structures with two dimensions (surfaces)
Extremely complex structures equipped with mechanical, chemical and electrical units (nanodevices).
Procedures and methods.

What is it and what will be its impact on medicine?

Immense contributions have been made and are expected in the field of medicine and health, since as we mentioned, these nanomaterials can become extremely precise with new effects, or evolved with respect to those already known. And since it is in the microscopic world where the structures that cause disease when altered are found, they would be extremely useful.

Some outstanding examples of application or research in medicine are:

Biomarkers of cancer cells with "ultra-high sensitivity and specificity". Playing an essential role in diagnosis, prognosis of efficacy in cancer patient treatments. They are being developed with the integration of nanoparticles, mass spectrometry, optical and electrical detection methods.

Nanocarrier delivery systems for inner ear treatment of hearing loss. Recent studies show a breakthrough in delivery to specific target cells.

Image-guided photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a promising strategy for cancer treatment. Thanks to recent discoveries of different types of dyes with novel (AIE Termed aggregation-induced emission) properties due to their nano-aggregation state and dual function. In the near future cancer could be treated with live imaging and with high efficacy, and as an extra benefit the dose of AIE nanoparticles and light radiation would be low, with minimal side effects.

Fullerene-C-60 and multivalent functionalized gold nanoparticles of various sizes: recently studied for their properties in modulating immune system response and immunodiagnosis.

Nano drug transporters deliver medication directly to diseased cells. They are able to trigger the release of medication with a specific DNA sequence into the cytosol with high efficiency and specificity. In addition, it is known that in the early stages of several types of cancer, markers are expressed (e.g., some RNA sequences) that would trigger this intracytoplasmic medication release and only in diseased cells, which would also reduce damage to healthy tissue.

Patches that would help repair heart disease that the body cannot do.

Bull metallic Glass would keep the heart beating.

X-ray laser beams: a beam very difficult to create because of its small wavelength. Thanks to the brevity of its pulses, they have been able to make ultra-fast movies, for example of a chemical reaction, which can capture ultra-fast images of very fast processes and make observations and controls at infinitely small scales.

Nano pacemaker. The same creator of the original pacemaker has evolved from the first one that was a machine of about 50 kg that worked with the battery of a car, to the nano pacemaker that is the size of a quarter of a grain of rice, and does not work with batteries as its predecessors, but is driven by the contraction of the heart cells, and the doctor would receive an alarm on his cell phone in case of cardiac malfunction, to correct parameters from his cell phone. It would also be placed in an outpatient procedure.

Insulin pumps implanted inside the body, as well as a large number of applications under study and others already applied.

Curious facts.

"There's plenty of room at the bottom" was the title of Richard Feynman's speech when he first presented the scientific work on the "nano-world" before the American Physical Society at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "What I want to talk about is the problem of manipulating and controlling things on a small scale ..... when I mention this people talk to me about there being a device with which you can write the Lord's Prayer on the head of a pin, or there's a motor the size of a fingernail, they tell me. But that's nothing: that's the most primitive and hesitant step in the direction I want to discuss. It's a surprisingly small world underneath".

There are nanotubes that at a certain temperature cause light to deflect away from objects causing "invisibility".

By accident, trying to recreate the conditions under which a star would exist, Bucky paper was created, which is 10 times lighter and 250 times stronger than steel.

Different properties of the same material at a microscopic or macroscopic size, for example:

Hg (mercury) exhibits non-metallic behavior, due in part to being in nanocrystals of less than 2 nm increases the contact surface area by increasing its surface area, making it more likely to attract or repel with other atoms.

Gold can become soluble, and stable materials such as silver Ag can become combustible.

Damascus steel over 1000 years old has carbon nanotubes, the blades that are made of that supposedly cut stone or metal, and how to do it is still unknown, but if it is known now with advances in microscopy and nanotechnology and is that they are nanoparticles arranged in a certain order.

Conclusion

Nanotechnology is the technology with the greatest potential in the world of materials, with new forms and materials, organic and inorganic, nanoparticles or nano polymers. It allows us to see and manipulate the atoms and molecules of everything around us, from the clothes we wear, the food we eat, paper, plastics, rocks, trees, water, our bodies… absolutely everything.

If we can visualize in our minds that each of the materials present on the planet have different properties at nanometer scales, we will be able to visualize that truly ..... Yes... "there is more room at the bottom" ....

About the Author:

Maria Soledad Gomez has 10+ years of industry experience working in a variety of roles within regulated industry, healthcare and medicine, including food/beverage, hospitals and veterinary medicine. Maria Sole writes technical articles on a wide variety of topics in the medical field.

About the Editor:

Brian Hoy has 20+ years of industry experience in medical devices and business formation, covering the complete life cycle with global scope. Brian consults for industry and gives general advisory and off-hours support.

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