Abstract
Nanotechnology is the science of nanoscale, which is the scale of nanometers or one billionth of a meter. Nanotechnology encompasses a broad range of technologies, materials, and manufacturing processes that are used to design and/or enhance many products, including medicinal products. This technology has achieved considerable progress in the oncology field in recent years. Most chemotherapeutic agents are not specific to the cancer cells they are intended to treat, and they can harm healthy cells, leading to numerous adverse effects. Due to this non-specific targeting, it is not feasible to administer high doses that may harm healthy cells. Moreover, low doses can cause cancer cells to acquire resistance, thus making them hard to kill. A solution that could potentially enhance drug targeting and delivery lies in understanding the complexity of nanotechnology. Engineering pharmaceutical and natural products into nano-products can enhance the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Novel nano-formulations such as liposomes, polymeric micelles, dendrimers, quantum dots, nano-suspensions, and gold nanoparticles have been shown to enhance the delivery of drugs. Improved delivery of chemotherapeutic agents targets cancer cells rather than healthy cells, thereby preventing undesirable side effects and decreasing chemotherapeutic drug resistance. Nanotechnology has also revolutionized cancer diagnosis by using nanotechnology-based imaging contrast agents that can specifically target and therefore enhance tumor detection. In addition to the delivery of drugs, nanotechnology can be used to deliver nutraceuticals like phytochemicals that have multiple properties, such as antioxidant activity, that protect cells from oxidative damage and reduce the risk of cancer. There have been multiple advancements and implications for the use of nanotechnology to enhance the delivery of both pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products in cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
Highlights
The evolution of nanoscale sciences and nanotechnology over the past two decades is responsible for the availability and growing prominence of the field of nanomedicine
Resistance to chemotherapy has been a major challenge in treatment, due to insufficient targeting and the presence of efflux pumps (p-glycoproteins (P-gp)) in the tumor that pumps out the chemotherapeutic agents
Another attractive quality of Polymeric micelles (PMs) owing to their hydrophilic shell and nanoscopic size is that mechanical clearance of the micelles by renal filtration, reticuloendothelial system (RES) uptake, and/or by the spleen is prevented, allowing for prolonged circulation in the blood [21]
Summary
The evolution of nanoscale sciences and nanotechnology over the past two decades is responsible for the availability and growing prominence of the field of nanomedicine. With the inception of nanomedicine, the community discovered the intrinsic ability of this science to circumvent some of the most fundamental shortcomings of traditional medicine, including off-target drug side effects, non-specific cell-targeting, and drug instability. It is important to investigate the history and current knowledge of nanopharmaceuticals and nanonutraceuticals as a means to better understand the anticancer properties that these formulations hold and their potential in moving forward. We give a brief summary of common nanoformulation techniques, their application potentials and limitations, as well as some novel developments in nanoscale formulations that show promise for future growth of nanopharmaceuticals and nanonutraceuticals
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