Males and females respond differently to medications due to physiologic, metabolic, and genetic factors. At times, sex‐related differences cannot be mitigated by dose adjustment to body mass, and are evident from the tissue level to the single cell. The rising number of clinically approved nanotechnologies calls for assessing how their activity is affected by the patient's sex. Herein, sex differences in nanotechnology are scoped, with emphasis on molecular considerations. Sex‐specific pharmacokinetics of nanocarriers is influenced by the nanoparticle's composition, its size, and architecture. The biodistribution and immune response to nanoparticles in males and females, and the influence nanoparticles have on hormones, fertility, and toxicity, are discussed. Despite its importance, the effect of sex on the design and implementation of nanomedicines is underresearched. Herein, it is aimed to raise awareness of sex differences in the preclinical and clinical evaluation of nanotechnologies.
Many cases of heritable environmental responses have been documented but the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. Recently, inherited RNA interference has been shown to act as a multigenerational genome surveillance apparatus. We suggest that inheritance of regulatory RNAs is at the root of many other epigenetic phenomena, the trigger that induces other epigenetic mechanisms, such as the depositing of histone modifications and DNA methylation. In addition, we explore the possibility that interacting organisms influence each other's transcriptomes by exchanging heterologous non-coding RNAs.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.