Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Antimicrobial Techniques
One of the earliest nanomedicine applications was the use of nanocrystalline silver
which is as an antimicrobial agent for the treatment of wounds. A nanoparticle
cream has been shown to fight staph infections. The nanoparticles contain nitric
oxide gas, which is known to kill bacteria. Studies on mice have shown that using
the nanoparticle cream to release nitric oxide gas at the site of staph abscesses
significantly reduced the infection.
Burn dressing that is coated with nanocapsules containing antibiotics. If an
infection starts, the harmful bacteria in the wound causes the nanocapsules to
break open, releasing the antibiotics. This allows much quicker treatment of an
infection and reduces the number of times a dressing has to be changed.
Cell Repair
Nanorobots could actually be programmed to repair specific diseased cells,
functioning in a similar way to antibodies in our natural healing processes [
5
].
Protein and Peptide Delivery
Protein and peptides exert multiple biological actions in the human body and they
have been identified as showing great promise for treatment of various diseases
and disorders. These macromolecules are called biopharmaceuticals. Targeted and/
or controlled delivery of these biopharmaceuticals using nanomaterials like
nanoparticles and Dendrimers is an emerging field called nano-biopharmaceutics,
and these products are called nanobiopharmaceuticals.
Molecular Imaging and Therapy
The small size of nanoparticles endows them with properties that can be very
useful in oncology, particularly in imaging. Qdots, when used in conjunction with
MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), can produce exceptional images of tumor
sites. These nanoparticles are brighter than organic dyes and only need one light
source for excitation. This means that the use of fluorescent qdots could produce a
higher contrast image and at a lower cost than today's organic dyes used as
contrast media. The downside, however, is that qdots are usually made of quite
toxic elements (Fig.
1
).
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