The Involvement of Nano-Drug Delivery in Biosafety Issues

Abstract

Nanotechnology encompasses a broad conjunct of techniques aimed to engineer, characterize and make use of structures of 1 (nanoplates), 2 (nanotubes) or 3 dimensions (nanoparticles) in the nanoscale, known as nano-objects. The upper limit of the nanoscale was fixed at 100 nm [1], but in the nanopharmaceutical field the nano-scale is accepted to rise up to 200-300 nm. Biosynthesized molecules (such as hormones, proteins, nucleic acids) and drugs, whose activity depends on a primary structure and not on new phenomena derived from its size in the nano-scale, do not fit into the definition of nano-object [2]. Also the lower limit of the nanoscale was fixed in 1 nm in order to exclude atoms [2]. Beyond these constraints, there is no restriction in chemical nature of nano-objects. Today, the global market of nanotechnological consumer product is gained by non biodegradable and mostly nondispersive nano-objects. This is underscored by the raise from 212 to 1317 products (nearly 521%) between 2006 and 2011 [3]. On the other hand, Nanomedicine is the emerging discipline that employs nanoobjects as tools to solve medical problems [4,5]. The volume market of Nanomedicine is expected to exceed $160 billion by 2015, according to a business report recently launched by the Global Industry Analysts Inc [6]. The main technological platform of Nanomedicine is nano-drug delivery, accounting for 78 % global sales and 58 % of patent filling worldwide [7,8] followed by development of nano-objects for in vitro/in vivo diagnosis [9] and tissue engineering [10]. The field is characterized by the advent of a different type of nano-objects, inherently dispersive or ‘free’.