Nanotechnology And Drug Development

Bottom up approach is the building up of objects from small things. It is just like a building a house with bricks. In biological system we can construct DNA or a lipid membrane. Top down approach is resizing an object to the nanoscale. It can be best exemplified by formation of small size chips from the integrated circuit.

I cannot understand the question properly. The tendency of nanoparticles to form aggreggates will be increased as the particle size decreases.

Bulk drugs (especially antibiotics) are produced by fermentation process. Fermentation is not a new science to us. It exists from age old times in which wine is produced from grape juice and formation of curd from milk.

Thank you sir,

Life cycle can be prolonged by use of nanobiotechnology. we can detect the disease at early stages and deliver the drug to the required site at suitable dose. Nanobiosensors, lab on a chip which can detect the changes in hormone levels, ions, lipids etc. are very useful.

1. The properties of materials will be altered when we reduce the particle size to nanoscale. The tendency to aggregate will be more. Bicompatability is going to be other problem. Patient may not accept the use of chips in his body in case of implantable drug delivery systems. Proudction of such sytems may be difficult and become expensive.

2. You can see the below answer for its use in cancer therapy.

In cancer therapy, the drugs we administer cannot properly distinguish between the healthy cells and tumor cells. Furhter, cancer may not be limited to a single region. So targetting is the main challenge associated with cancer therapy. Today with the recent advances in biotechnology and nanotechnology targetting can be achieved by attaching a specific antibody of cancer cell to target it so that it will not kill the healthy cell. By the use of biosensors concept or lab on a chip we can automatically detect the cancer at initial stages itself so that it can be effectively treated. Nanotechnology is a broader term applicable to small things in nanometer range whereas nanobiotechnology is the application of them to the biological system.

Nanobiotechnology related drug development in India is still at infancy stage. Very few companies are focussing on nanobiotechnology, sensors and semi conductors. Some companies are Velnanobiotech, Bharat biotechnology, nanocet. Developments are limited to research institutes such as IIT, IISC, University of Delhi, Institute of nuclear medicine, National chemical laboratory, Pune.

Nanoparticles in Nanotechnology is a broader term, anything manufactured at the nanoscale level comes under it. As far as drug delivery is concerned nanoparticles include polymeric nanoparticles, liposomes, dendrimers, quantum dots etc. Nanofabrication is nothing but the design or manufacturing of devices at nanoscale. Top down and bottom up approaches are the two methods in nanofabrication. Assembling of cells into tissues or atoms into molecules is a bottom up approach. Resizing of an integrated circuit until we achive the desired size is top down approach.

Electro mechanical systems are the integrated circuits varying from micro to nano range. They have various applications in automotive engineering, telecommunications, space exploration. As far as biology is concerned, they are used in the biological sensors, immuno assays, impantable drug delivery systems. They are soon going to replace the cumbersome clinical laboratory equipment and procedures as they can handle samples at micro and nanolevels.

There are two approaches in nanotechnology. One is bottom up and top down approaches. In our biological system, most of the components are at nano range. We can artificially construct the biomimetic materials. For example, nanocomposites made of hydroxyapatite, fumarate based polymers and alumoxane and other biodegradable polymers can be used for the replacement of material that is present in the bone. Clottocyte consist of a nano range chemically inert material coated with platelet membrane to make it bio compatible. Several such clottocytes can be packed into a fibre mesh and can be administered.

u can see the slide named products of nanobiotechnology

hello sir

Nanotechnology can be definitely used in drug discovery. Till now, we do not know how the components of a cell reacts when we administer a specific chemical compound (drug). But by using atomic force microscopy (AFM), we can identify the presence of a protein by attaching its specific antibody to the tip of microscope and observe the variance in its reading. Images of biological samples will be contributors to the drug discovery. Interactions between the biomolecules can be studied using a technique called as surface plasmon resonance (SPR). By using a 2D gel electrophoresis capable of resolving 2500+ protein spots from a sample, we can identify the NOVEL TARGETS.

reference: www.drugresearcher.com

hello sir

Yes understanding human physiology at molecular level will be more appropriate