Drug delivery using metal oxide nanoparticles

Abstract

The use of nanotechnology in order to reach purposes from biomedical and pharmaceutical fields has had a progressively increasing impact, even in preclinical developments, shaping the emerging scientific field of nanomedicine. Many of these developments are entering the clinical area and most of them are based on nanosystems for diagnosis and therapy. Among the several different types of nanomaterials that have been studied and reported, those based on metal oxide nanoparticles (MONPs) have captivated the attention of scientists because of their particular properties (viz., high stability, tunable shape, porosity, easy preparation processes, simple surface functionalization, etc.). MONPs have been explored for different biomedical applications, including bioimaging, drug and gene delivery, hyperthermia treatments, antioxidant therapy, photodynamic therapy, dentistry, wound healing, among others. In this scenario, this chapter aims to cover the main aspects regarding MONPs, highlighting the main biomedical applications of iron oxide, cerium oxide, titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, copper oxides, silver oxide, magnesium oxide, calcium oxide, nickel oxide, and aluminum oxide, mainly focusing on their preclinical and clinical evaluation.