Nanotechnology: A Therapeutic Approach

Nanotechnology can be defined as the manipulation, precision-placement, modeling and manufacture of material at the nanometer scale. The purpose of this review is to discuss the impact of nanotechnology in the treatment of the major health threats including cancer, infectious diseases, metabolic diseases, autoimmune diseases, and inflammations. Indeed, during the past 37 years, the explosive growth of nanotechnology has burst into challenging innovations in pharmacology. Although the introduction of nanotechnology obviously permitted to step over numerous milestones toward the development of the magic bullet proposed a century ago by the immunologist Paul Ehrlich. Cancer cells have unique properties that can be exploited by nanoparticles. They can be used very effectively for drug delivery. Normally, drugs work through the entire body before they reach the disease-affected area. Using nanotechnology, the drug can be targeted to a precise location which would make the drug much more effective and reduce the chances of possible side-effects. A great advantage of using nanotechnology for drug delivery is that the amount and time of drug release can be easily controlled by predetermination of nanoparticle. Nanotechnology is still in its early stages. The applications discussed in this review have already been developed and are already helping patients all over the world. Keywords- Nanoparticle, Cancer, Alzheimer's disease, TDDS