NANOTECHNOLOGY IN CANCER TREATMENT

-By Adarsh Kumar

-Batch(2k20), Deptt. of

Chemical Engg.

-BIT Sindri, Dhanbad

INTRODUCTION:

The mortal body suffers from numerous conditions, it can be due to inheritable blights, infections, or an unhealthy life. One of the major conditions among them is cancer. Cancer is a large group of conditions that can start in nearly any organ or towel of the body.

Typically mortal cells grow and multiply (through a system known as cell division) to produce new cells as the body desires them. Once cells develop old or come damaged, they die and new cells take their place. While in some cases, this orderly process breaks down, and abnormal or damaged cells grow and multiply themselves whereas they shouldn't. These cells may also produce excrescences, which are lumps of towels. Excrescences can be cancerous or non-cancerous ( begin).

Cancerous excrescences spread into near apkins and can travel to distant places in the body to form new excrescences (a process called metastasis). Cancerous excrescences may also be called nasty excrescences. Numerous cancers form solid excrescences, but cancer of the blood generally doesn't.

Benign (non-cancerous) excrescences don't spread into near apkins. When removed, benign excrescences generally don't develop back, while cancerous excrescences occasionally do. Benign excrescences can occasionally be relatively large and can beget serious symptoms or be life-hanging similar to benign excrescences in the brain.

HOW CANCER DEVELOPS

Cancer is a genetic disease i.e. it is caused by changes to genes that control the way our cells function, especially how they grow and divide.

Genetic changes that cause cancer can happen because:-

~ Of errors that occurred as cell divide.

~ Injurious substances in the environment such as the chemical in tobacco, smoke, and ultraviolet rays from the sun may cause damage to the DNA.

~ They were inherited from our parents.

NANOTECHNOLOGY

The word nano of nanotechnology is related to nanoscale which is about  1 to 100nm or (10^-9). Nanotechnology deals with science, engineering, and technology conducted at the nanoscale. It is the manipulation of nearly atomic matter to produce new structures, materials, and devices. 

Scientists and researchers investing more than ten years on it to get benefit from nanotech that gave them both expected and unexpected applications of nanotech. It can help to improve, even revolutionize many technologies and industry sectors, information technology, homeland security,  medicine, transportation, energy, food safety, and environmental science, among many others.

Scientists are presently debating about the emerging significance of technology. Technology may remain capable to produce some original fabrics and instruments with a large variety of coatings e.g, at nanomedicine, nanoelectronics, biomaterial energy production, and consumer products.

NANOTECHNOLOGY IN CANCER TREATMENT

Chemotherapy is one of the important methods to cure cancer using nanotechnology.  Abraxane and Doxil are nanoparticles made from the protein albumin attached to chemo drug docetaxel that helps chemotherapeutic drugs work better. It stops cancer cells from dividing further.

Chemotherapy is often an effective treatment for cancer because it attacks and kills dividing cells. On the downside, chemo attacks some healthy cells in the crossfire, causing hair loss, nausea, and easy bruising. Chemo can not inform healthy cells apart from cancerous cells. It just kills any cell that divides faster and than normal.

But if we can separate healthy cells from abnormal ones, then the side effect of using chemotherapy can be reduced. To make this happen Si Ping Han, a bioengineer uses nanobots that sense their environment and bring drugs only to the diseased cells.

Nanobots to cure cancer (An experiment)

In 2018, researchers experimented with nanobots to cure cancer in mice, these nanobots have the potential to act as a smart drug curing cancer by delivering a drug directly to cancerous cells by choking off their blood supply. 

They expect these clinical trials will be ready for humans in the next few years.

Application (How nanobots work)

These nanobots sense the unhealthy cells, like cancer, and inject them with a deadly payload. These tiny, cancer-killing smart missiles could be a huge breakthrough for cancer treatment, thanks to nanomachine precision.

These nanobots could be tracked with great accuracy as researchers position them within the body applying magnetic fields.

In general, these nanobots are cast for 10-15 days after that if it is not absorbed by the lungs, then it leaves the body in the feces or if absorbed then through mucus.

ADVANTAGES OF USING NANOTECHNOLOGY

☞ Using nanotechnology, we can decrease the systemic toxicities generated due to conventional cancer diagnostic and therapeutic tools.

 ☞ Molecular diagnostic based on nanotechnology, such as the development of biomarkers, can accurately and quickly detect cancers with the help of doctors.

 ☞ Nanotechnology also provides quick and sensitive detection of cancer-related molecules, enabling scientists to detect molecular changes even when they occur in only a small fraction of cells.

 ☞ It helps to increase drug delivery to tumor cells.

 ☞ It has the potential to decrease off-target systematic drug toxicity.

 ☞ The increase of small-size nanoparticles is accurate and readily with biomolecules on both the surface and inside cells.

 ☞ These nanobots can't control us as it is made to just destroy the unhealthy cells while nanobots are used in the treatment. Of neurological diseases called gold nanoparticles could even be used to control our brains. This might be a topic for discussion with scientists as to what happened if it gets into the wrong hands.

DISADVANTAGES :

☞ But everything has both sides. Similarly, it has some drawbacks, for example, toxicity, environmental harm, and organ damage caused by nanoparticles. So it cannot be termed flawless. The main reason for its disadvantage is its size.

☞ As the transition from microparticles to nanoparticles begins, the size range decreases to a large extent, and the number of surface atoms increases. The problems like inter particular friction and sticking become significant as the surface area becomes larger.

☞ The increased surface area of the nanoparticles results in augmented chemical reactivity of these particles leading to a pressing uncertainty as to how these particles will react under different conditions and whether they will be able to cross cell membranes and enter cells.

☞ Risks of oxidative stress, inflammation, damage of DNA, proteins, and membranes, increase as the increased chemical reactivity of nanoparticles brings about the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) which ultimately leads to toxicity.

☞ As nanoparticles have no common feature other than size this brings a major drawback of nanomedicine.

☞ A substance that is non-toxic at 100 nm can become toxic at 1mm or vice versa and the main reason behind this can be a change in its shape and size which can lead to varied physical and chemical interactions.

☞ Dependency of that debris in the encompassing environment- debris may also crumble or mixture leading to alteration in length leading to toxicity.

☞ The chemical composition, surface structure, surface charge, solubility, and the presence of functional groups on the nanoparticles may be the other factors influencing toxicity.

☞ Nanoparticles can gain access into the various cell organelles like nucleus or mitochondria and trigger damage. They can also initiate blood coagulation pathways and prompt platelet aggregation. Sometimes even the carrier systems themselves may cause toxicity.

☞ According to the studies, nanoparticles can accumulate in the organs of various animals. The biodegradable nanoparticles can be excreted from the body, but non-biodegradable ones may accumulate in organs and potentially may cause harm.

☞ Nanoparticles produce ROS and oxidative stress, which may cause neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Even the lungs are damaged by these nanoparticles.

☞ Nanoparticles may even cause pulmonary inflammation, immune effects, and systemic effects. Sometimes there is an issue with the nose as attacking the nanoparticles through the olfactory epithelium leads to epithelial cell injury.

☞ Other sectors have risks apart from patients, nanoparticles may perhaps be toxic to the environment too and may require prior processing before disposal. The non-biodegradable are likely to cause land, water, or air pollution.

 

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