What is Nanotechnology?

Nanotechnology has definitely come into the public’s consciousness in recent years and with a?projected growth from $1.1b in 2018 to $2.2b?by 2025, it’s easy to see why. But what is nanotechnology?

This is not a question that is immediately easy to answer due to the broad range of what Nanotechnologies involve. As a top-line description, nanotechnologies could be defined as involving the manipulation or development of materials at the scale of nanometres (nm), usually in relation to anything?less than 100nm in dimension. For those who don’t know what a nanometre is, this still won’t help. One nanometre is one billionth of a meter – a figure truly difficult to grasp the scale of. To put this into perspective,?if?the diameter of a?marble was one nanometre, then the Earth’s diameter would be about one metre

What can Nanotech do?

One of the most exciting applications being explored is the ability for nanotech to isolate and repair damage to the body. Adult cells have been identified as ‘programmable’, which potentially allows for them to be converted into other various types of cells.?Researchers in Ohio have used this technology to develop treatments that can repair damage from wounds, stroke and even organ failure.

It was found that a chip can be loaded with specific genetic code of certain proteins, which can then be injected into skin tissue via channels created by small electrical currents. Once the DNA or RNA is injected into those channels it takes root and begins to reprogram the cells.?The researchers applied this to the injured legs of mice, reprogramming the mice’s skin cells into vascular cells, and within weeks active blood vessels formed saving the legs of the mice.

The researchers even showed viability of this technique for treatment of stroke. By using this technique, brain functions in mice were restored and it healed in just a few weeks after having a stroke.

Targeted drug delivery in COVID-19 vaccines

Another interesting application of nanotechnology is the viability of nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery. Nanoparticles can be created to carry a payload that delivers concentrated drugs directly to target cells. There are huge benefits to this method of drug delivery, particularly around increasing absorption levels of drugs – through nanotechnology, drugs previously disregarded due to poor bioavailability can become an option again via incorporation into a nanocarrier. This then allows the drugs to better cross the intestinal membrane if administered orally and to better cross the cell membrane into the target cell once in position.

This is a technique that has never been in the limelight more than it is today.?A number of the recently developed COVID-19 Vaccines take advantage of nanoparticle delivery systems. The Moderna vaccine uses this technology to help stimulate a stronger immune response, whereas the Pfizer vaccine uses liposomes as an mRNA delivery system, which can easily cross the cell membrane.

Antimicrobial properties

Possibly one of the most explored and developed nanotechnologies is the use of silver nanoparticles for antimicrobial applications. It is already a technology that has been used in cosmetics, coating of toothbrushes and surgical mesh. It can prevent bacteria growing or sticking to a surface and has even shown the potential to cause bacterial death. Due to their nanoscale size,?they have the ability to penetrate bacterial cell walls and subsequently change the structure of the cell membrane causing it to breakdown.

However, this isn’t all good news, the impacts of the growing adoption of nanotech is starting to grow. From an environment standpoint, silver nanoparticles have been shown to negatively impact wastewater treatment processes by inhibiting the growth of microorganisms essential to the process. It has also been shown that nanoparticles can enter the bodies of shellfish, fish and even aquatic plants. This is particularly worrying as the ease of absorption into these organisms exposes humans to the nanoparticles absorbed by these species. Although there hasn’t been significant research into the potential harms of this,?there has been preliminary research performed?that found silver nanoparticles can traverse into the brain in laboratory rats, which has been shown to induce neuronal degeneration and death and necrosis over an extended period of time.

Looking to the future

Although it has been an area of research that has significantly advanced within recent years, a huge portion of practical applications of nanotechnology sits within its infancy. There is no doubt that there are already exciting applications within the likes of cell repair and targeted drug delivery, however, this does not take away from the fact that further research needs to be done into the potential N of a world widely adopting nanotechnology. The usage of it along with its impact to the environment needs to be closely monitored, and regulations need to catch up with the speed Nanotechnology is moving at – prevention is always better than cure.