Transcript By Allyson Clark Smart Medicine

Nanotechnology
Smart Medicine
Engineering the Future
By Allyson Clark
Aspirin
• Inhibits the enzyme cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) so the brain
does not receive a signal interpreted as pain
• Nonselective and goes throughout the body, not just the
area harmed
http://easydiagnosis.com/articles/images/aspirin.jpg
http://www.greatbigstuff.com/prodpics/aspirin-blank.jpg
Smart Medicine
• Goal:
– Create a system of drug delivery that delivers any drug at the right
time in the right amount
– target only malignant cells and not affect healthy tissue
• How?
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Nanoshells
Hydrogels
Nanoparticles
hydrogel
Magnetic herding
Drug releasing, tube, and cell chambers
nanoshell
http://www.fh.huji.ac.il/~roib/coreshell_files/image002.gif
http://www.materials.qmul.ac.uk/postgrad/images/high-m-hydrogel.jpg
Nanoshells
• Beads that are three millionths of an inch wide with an outer
metal wall and an inner silicon core
• Has the ability to absorb or scatter specific wavelengths of
light
• Can convert light to heat and “cook” harmful cells
• Can trigger drug delivery devices
http://nano.cancer.gov/resource_center/nanotech_nanoshells.asp
Hydrogels
• 3D highly hydrophilic network that can absorb
compounds
• Expands in water but does not dissolve
• Can control the rate at which it releases drugs
Electronic
microscopy view
of porous
hydrogel.
http://www.chem.stevens.edu/content_images/porous_hydrogel.gif
Magnetic Herding
• Manipulates colloidal objects
• Biology is mostly composed of colloidal material,
things larger than 10 billionths of a meter that don’t
settle
• Very few things in nature are magnetically
susceptible
Bead transport under fields rotating out-of-plane.
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/102/25/8860/FIG3
Fig. 1. Bead levitation and microtweezing by magnetic traps
Yellen, Benjamin B. et al. (2005) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102, 8860-8864
Copyright ©2005 by the National Academy of Sciences
PNAT
Nanoparticles
• Drugs can be linked to nanoparticles
• Nanoparticles can store pharmaceutical agents and release
them at the desired target
• Allows us to see cells and molecules conventional imaging
does not allow us to detect
http://nano.cancer.gov/resource_center/nano_critical.asp#why
Drug-releasing, Tube, and Cell Chambers
• Chambers have semi-permeable membranes that
use diffusion to control the release rate of medicine
• Tubes release potent drugs very slowly while
chambers release at fairly fast rates
• Cell chambers can be used to produce compounds,
such as insulin, inside the body
Drug-releasing chamber
http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v21/n10/full/nbt876.html
Truly Smart Medicine?
• An “ideal” drug delivery system would be able to
determine when and if a dose was needed and
would deliver it automatically
• We’re not there yet, but we’re getting closer every
day!
Works Cited
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http://www.math.uci.edu/~cristini/publications/nanochap.pdf
http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/107/8/1092
http://nano.cancer.gov/resource_center/nano_critical.asp
http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v21/n10/full/nbt876.html
• http://www2.mdanderson.org/depts/oncolog/articles/03/7-8-julaug/7-803-1.html
• http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Stor
y_ID=916725
• http://www.nature.com/materials/nanozone/news/010927/po
rtal/011004-2.html
• http://health.howstuffworks.com/aspirin3.htm
Works Cited (cont.)
• http://courses.csusm.edu/biol356bm/Powerpoints/drug_delive
ry_nano.pdf
• http://leeexplore.leee.org/eil5/9589/30307/01392308.pdf?arnu
mber=1392308
• http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/102/25/8860
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/06/050621074514
.htm
• Nanoscale Technology in Biological Systems Greco, Ralph S.