3.4 Applications of Nanotechnology in Personalized Medicine
The ability of research with matter on the nanometer scale increases; researchers discover progressive applications of nanotechnology among the wide range of different pharmaceutical industries. The clinical field shall be one among the streams affected mostly by the developing sciences of nanotechnology because it coincidentally has an increased background understanding about the physiology of medications at the molecular level [44].
Nanotechnology allows better insight to enhance patient centric formulation development for clinical therapy. The excellence and the potential need for personalized medicines are established effectively through the combination of nanotechnology and nanotools to provide an upgraded promising therapy administering the suitable drug, at the right dose, at the right time, to the exact patient. This benefits the drug’s accuracy, safety, efficiency, and efficacy. Researchers have utilized nanotechnology in various biological and clinical sectors (e.g., imaging therapeutic agents tagging contrast colored carriers in the treatment of cancer) [45]. To explain hybrid fields, terminologies like biomedical nanotechnology, nanobiotechnology, and nanomedicines are applicable. The size of these formulated nanoparticulates is more similar to that of the biologically driven molecules, structures, and genetic matters. Considering the following advantage of nanoparticles, they benefit in both in vitro and in vivo for biomedical research applications such as contrast agents, direct development of analytical tools, drug delivery vehicles, and diagnostic devices. The concept of nanotechnology in personalized medicine has emerged through the combination of two technologies collaborated—biotechnology and nanotechnology—widely termed as nano biotech. The elaboration of this stream of science leads to the development of nanodevices, molecular biology for diagnosis, nanoproteomics/genomics, and biomarkers [46].
The area of science that deals with the applications of processes and tools for the manufacturing of devices to forecast, study, and understand the objectives of biological system and its needs is called nanobiotechnology [47]. It is the branch that allocates nanotechnology with biological, biomedical, and clinical uses or applications. The field helps in engineering new devices in nanoscale by repeated examination and estimation of the already existing patient elements and complexities. This paves a new era for the development of unique potential area of research that facilitates personalized medicines for the betterment of a patient’s health (e.g., nanobiosensors, nanobiofluidics, nanodevices, and nanobiophotonics) [48]. The opinions of experts express that the nanobiotechnology field in the researches and industries is a blockbuster boon for the capability of advanced changes in the current scenario. The immense applications of nanobiotechnology are more promising in the polymer’s synchronization, proteins, peptides, and nucleic acids by regulating the biological systemic function with remarkable precision [49].
In personalized medicines, the use of nanomedicine application has been widely practiced and is being maintained in its controlled position. They possess benefits like being a patient-friendly approach for an individual patient, which is attained by the use of nanomedicines in relation to customizing a therapeutic agent for a particular disease. Nanomedicines are also capable of exerting their advantages over delivering genomic matter and protein to the required site of action [50]. Though there are several advantages that served till 2014, FDA approved 43 formulations that were sensationally promoted as nanotechnology emerged products, and among them, only 4 claimed to have the property of a nanomedicinal approach [51].
For nanodevices that lay the principles of nanobiotechnology-based devices for the application of diagnosis such as an X-ray device, which is a nanodiagnostic device that captures images in different angles without the influence of material motion, they are easy to maintain due to their compact small size. Similarly, nanodevices are implanted in the biological system to release therapeutic agents in an automated fashion. Utility of a nanosensor containing a nanoradio transmitter is implanted surgically to detect a particular disease like cancer at earlier stages [52].
Nanoparticle and its technology can have a broad range of uses and applications in medicines. As mentioned, refreshing techniques in biological sensing and imaging create the best suitable tiny drug delivery systems to distribute among all the tissues or specific tissue of the human body [53]. They provide accurate delivery of therapeutic agents to the system with minimized drug toxicity, cut short the cost of therapy, and ultimately increase the bioavailability at the site of action. They also enhance the intercellular bioavailability of the agents, which give a promising route of drug delivery system to the genetic material and gene-based medicines [54].
From the initial era of the drug delivery system to date, still the major challenge and limitation for the effective delivery of xenobiotics to central nervous system-related deficiencies and diseases are due to the biological membrane permeability through the blood brain barrier (BBB) [55]. They allow smaller and tiny hydrophilic compounds having a mass of 150 Da and lesser; similarly, compounds that are highly lipophilic with a mass of 500 Da are capable of diffusing through the BBB. Therefore, the general route of drug delivery system is not suitable to treat neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, other CNS-related disorders, deficiencies in genetics, and several types of brain tumors. Nanotechnology provides suitable biodegradable, biocompatible, non-immunogenic, and non-inflammatory carriers for the therapeutic compound showing good safety, efficacy, efficiency, and site-targeted and reduced toxicity [56]. For example, in specific to the Alzheimer’s disease prevention, random studies have used traditional approaches to estimate the mono- or poly-intervention efficacy of patient treatment outcomes like cognitive functioning, biomarkers, and imaging techniques. On the other hand, these studies are conducted majorly based on the “one size fits all” principle to target without any accountability to genetic and non-genetic factors (diet, lifestyle, exercise, etc.). Prevention of Dementia by Intensive Vascular Care and Multidomain Alzheimer Prevention Trial has not been precipitated with any cognitive function with interventions associated with lifestyle including physical activity, exercise, management of cognition and comorbidity, nutrition, and diet. The study was conducted in the population where the individual has already been exposed to a minor level of decline in cognition or dementia. The development of Alzheimer’s in the brain has been apparently identified with clinical symptoms decades back. Therefore, the population for studying will not be optimized to promote by modifications in lifestyle as each and every individual patient goes through the decline of cognition beyond the prevention window [57]. The FINGER (Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability) is the initial stepping multicenter randomized clinical trial (RCT) that looks into the influence of lifestyle intervention towards cognitive impairment risks in individuals. They report that the trials conducted were regardless of demographical status, cardiac risks, and baseline cognition. They also carried out further sub-analysis that explores the impacts of specific genetic factors, apolipoprotein E, and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) interference in lifestyle. A result of sub-analysis shows a significant difference in the treatment and prevention strategies of Alzheimer’s disease leading to the employment of a precision medicinal approach [58].
There still exists a major challenge in targeting the subcellular organelles for drugs exhibiting their potential area of action in the cells or tissues. Nanoparticles help in targeting by binding to the substrates present on the surface of the cells to deliver the drug or by endocytosis. The passive targeted nanoparticles loaded with drug molecules serve an immense priority to preferentially accumulate the chemodrug at the solid tumor tissues. Similarly, site-specific or target selective delivery of drug can be cast by surface modification of active nanoparticles targeting the receptor. These techniques enhance the drug bioavailability at the subcellular organelles and produce therapeutic actions [59].
The recent development in the field of personalized medicine includes the diagnosis and better treatment of cancer. This killer disorder in patients treated with the usually available strategies can only provide a chance to survive and a rare case for further cure. Adopting personalized medicine for cancer therapy is one of the promising ways to improve the chance of surviving against the tumor [60]. However, the