Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 6
Nanotoxicity: Must Consider Aspect
of Nanoparticle Development
Ranjita Shegokar
Abstract Early years are proof of nanoparticle developments and understanding
basic mechanisms. With no doubt, nanotechnology based drug delivery systems are
very effective to achieve improved therapeutic effects in vivo and properties
in vitro. Drug discovery programs are generating pharmacologically promising
drug candidates but they suffer from solubility, stability, and toxicity. Nanoparticle
engineering could find various solutions to solve these issues but unknowingly it
contributes to the toxicity at cellular and organ levels. New ways to treat diseases
are being researched include approaches like gene therapy and immunotherapy,
which suffer from other formulation disadvantages and toxicity issues. Overall,
many exciting results are obtained using nanotechnology research in various
infectious and non-infectious diseases. However, the main challenge is to pass the
safety testing during preclinical and clinical trial. This chapter illustrates various
aspects of nanoparticle toxicity, its evolution and presents the status on the regu-
latory and industry discussions about it.
6.1
Introduction
6.1.1 Background on Nanotoxicity
Nanotechnology has already reached successfully from lab to market with a lot of
scientific interest from pharma industry. Nanoparticles to sub-micron sized parti-
cles are used in food, cosmetics and pharma as drug delivery carriers and imaging
agents. Increased use and expected growth raised the eyes on other side of
nanoparticles, i.e., adverse effects. Large numbers of government and
non-government sectors are working on the increasing public awareness on
nanomaterials (particularly non-pharma), identification of improved characteriza-
tion techniques and robust toxicity screening tools. Nanotechnology for drug
