Drug Delivery Is One Way Nanotech Will Live Up to Its Hype
So, it has been more than three years since I last blogged about nanotechnology at my NanoBot blog, although I have written about it in other ways for other publications occasionally. But despite my attempt to hide from nano and move on with my career, those little buggers kept following me. They kept popping up everywhere no matter what science/technology topic I chose to write about. But what really brought me back can be described in two words: drug delivery. And, no, that is not a felony charge — at least, not in this case.
Drug delivery is one way nanotech will, at last, begin to live up to its original hype. To describe what nanotech-enabled drug delivery will do in the short term, let’s talk about something that annoys and amuses us all about the pharmaceutical industry: Black Box warnings. You know, those bizarre monotone voice-overs you hear during TV commercials about all the horrible side-effects that go along with the drug. You hear about the risk of heart attack and suicide as you watch people frolic hand-in-hand on the beach. Makes the cure seem much worse than the disease.
The problem, though, is not the drug, itself. The real trouble occurs once the drug is inside the body. In many cases, the drug breaks down, but then tend to clump together. The body generally sees these clumps as alien invaders and works like crazy to get them out. So, one of the major problems facing the pharmaceutical industry today is the poor solubility of drugs. The result is that drugmakers tack on compounds to make the drugs soluble. Unfortunately, patients read about the side-effects of those soluble compounds in the often-mocked, ubiquitous Black Box warnings that drug companies are forced to include in their commercials. The challenge is to find materials that make those side effects disappear.
The solubility problem is especially acute in anti-cancer drugs such as camptothecin. Solvents are often added that both dilute the effect of the drug and produce toxic side-effects. Nanomaterials can supply the answer. Silica-based nanoparticles, for example, can do the trick by carrying anti-cancer drugs directly to the tumor site, releasing its cargo, then disappearing (harmlessly, since silica is, basically, harmless sand).
Better solubility, better tumor targeting, and controlled release are the top three benefits of nanotech in drug delivery, according to a new report produced by UK-based Cientifica. The research group is headed by Tim Harper, who is famously cynical about nanotech hype. So, if he says that nanotech-enabled drug delivery is poised for real-world success in the next decade, I believe him.
Among the many examples that Cientifica cites in its new report is Nucryst Pharmaceuticals, based in Wakefield, Mass., which has developed a way to produce silver nanoparticles that can be used in antimicrobiological coatings. The nanosilver’s antimicrobial properties can be used in creams gels and prescription-drug tablets. The product, code named NPI 32101, is not a drug in itself, but it’s something that can be added to new and existing drugs to make them better.
No, this is not the nanotech of science fiction. But it is the near-term nanotech that can turn out to be pretty amazing anyway.
And it comes just in time for Big Pharma, facing an impending “patent apocalypse” in pharmaceuticals, when generics are going to take away some of their profits. Yes, I know, find me a nano-sized violin. Anyway, they’re looking at delivery methods as ways to extend patents.
But nanotech-enabled drug delivery is not just about improving profits for pharma. It represents the opening of a new frontier in disease treatment — breaking through the blood-brain barrier. Scientists have a love-hate relationship with this amazing mechanism. The barrier keeps viruses away from the brain while letting oxygen and other beneficial nutrients through. But to scientists trying to figure out treatments and cures for neurological diseases like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s, that blood-brain barrier is a big pain, locking out therapeutic genes and molecules. So, the story of drug delivery development these days seems to be increasingly about breaking through that final frontier.
So, yes, something funny happened along the way to “nanobots” in the bloodstream. Nanotech started to get real. And it’s been doing it without hype. That’s because nanotechnology is not any one technology at all. It’s an enabling technology. Many do not want to be associated with the hype of a decade ago, so they are not calling it nanotech at all.
This was probably the intent all along. Nanotech is simply the next generation of many different types of disciplines and technologies. I’m continuing to follow it with fascination. Watch this space for more.
Thank you Howard. As a life long professional investor I appreciate your insights and value the information on what will ultimately be a very significant change agent in our world.
Having spent many years in the computer industry back in the 1970s, I am well aware that powerful new technologies may take decades to reach their full impact.
A standing joke in the computer industry forty years ago, was just when will all the “productivity” immprovements of the “computer age” finally really show up? Well, I think that got answered pretty dramatically in the last twenty years. I have a feeling nanotechnology will be a similar phenomenum.
“The challenge is to find materials that make those side effects disappear.”
I wonder what we have to do to make ACORN disappear. Can we use nanotechnology to prevent voter fraud?
Its going to be convergence of technologies that trigger the next waves of discovery ; Nanotechnology, stem cells, carbon fiber, organic systems, etc, etc merging and creating inventions we cannot imagine today.
The tragic part is the US does not fund research programs as it should, while China is about to release multi trillion (in USD) programs in all these cutting edge technologies. The USA is wasting trillions on programs that return nothing, while China is investing in the future of its economy and nation.
I wouldn’t worry too much about Chinese investment. Governments of all stripes are notoriously bad at picking winners and losers. However, on the medical side, the one advantage the Chinese have is a relaxed regulatory environment. Less regulation means its easier to get stuff into the marketplace. And if a few people get killed along the way, then so be it… that’s the price of progress (sarcasm end). Too bad we can’t send them our lawyers along with all the other jobs..
Yes, yes, you are so right. Our stingy government never funds anything. We could create so many green-energy jobs if our government were not so afraid of financing the brilliant, well-planned and well-run green energy companies such as Solyndra. And everybody knows our drug and technology companies have no expertise or interest in developing new products because they could care less about introducing new products and selling them to make a profit.
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been very interested in the neuro aspects, of course suffering from nerve damage increases my curiosity LOL
Until nanotech starts delivering I’ll continue to regard it as I do fusion, just around the corner, which it has been for 40+ years.
At some time you gotta start selling the bacon and not just the sizzle.
nano has delivered in a way, look no further than the cpu in your computer.
I look forward to advances in nanotechnology making targeted delivery of psychotropic drugs possible, as I have this theory that many of the side effects of this family of medications are caused by those chemicals being in areas of the body where they have no business. Being able to use smaller doses of these drugs should also improve their safety.
Silica might have a future here, but isn’t introducing silver into the body extremely undesirable? The human body has no mechanism for getting rid of silver, which is why if you dose up on colloidal silver it can turn your skin gray. The problem is you can’t assume just one drug will use this method, or that it will only be for medications taken occasionally. If silver nanoparticles go into a lot of medications, and especially if some of those are maintenance medications, you’d better also have a way to bind that silver so it can be excreted safely. (Bonus question: If such a product can be found, what happens to all the good bacteria in your intestinal tract when silver is introduced there?)
Well, remember, nanotechnology is not simply about releasing nano “stuff” into the body without thought. That’s where the “technology” part comes in. Silver has wonderful antimicrobial properties and the trick is to deliver it in such a specific way that it kills only bad bacteria. You bring up a good point, though, and I know the FDA — and the EPA, by the way — are looking closely at nanosized silver in any product.
Willis ;
The Internet is the result of research programs funded by the US military in the 60′s, much of the technology today is the result of Govt funded programs either at universities or at small joint venture laboratories and research. It must go right over your head you are using technology created by the US Govt and given to companies to develop.
Reality is that technology requires large amounts of resources and funds to develop, private companies do not typically plunge billions of dollars into research programs unless there is clear profit identifiable. Unfortunately most discoveries are side benefits of larger programs such as Apollo, or the first electronic computer used to calculate ballistic trajectories in WW2, from which sprang the computer industry as we know it today.
Take the wool off.
I have 2 questions. How long can nanites be detected in the human body and is there a way nanites can be tracked or manipulated once there in the body?
Well, right now “nanites” can only be found on the pages and screens of science fiction. However, watch this space for a column I’ll write in the near future addressing where we are in actually creating them.