Nanomedicine in the diagnosis and therapy of neurodegenerative disorders

Abstract

Neurodegenerative and infectious disorders including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and stroke are rapidly increasing as population's age. Alzheimer's disease alone currently affects 4.5 million Americans, and more than $100 billion is spent per year on medical and institutional care for affected people. Such numbers will double in the ensuing decades. Currently disease diagnosis for all disorders is made, in large measure, on clinical grounds as laboratory and neuroimaging tests confirm what is seen by more routine examination. Achieving early diagnosis would enable improved disease outcomes. Drugs, vaccines or regenerative proteins present "real" possibilities for positively affecting disease outcomes, but are limited in that their entry into the brain is commonly restricted across the blood-brain barrier. This review highlights how these obstacles can be overcome by polymer science and nanotechnology. Such approaches may improve diagnostic and therapeutic outcomes. New developments in polymer science coupled with cell-based delivery strategies support the notion that diseases that now have limited therapeutic options can show improved outcomes by advances in nanomedicine.

Endosomal Trafficking of Nanoformulated Antiretroviral Therapy Facilitates Drug Particle Carriage and HIV Clearance

“…Nonetheless, to facilitate clearance of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), antiretroviral drugs need to be effectively delivered to viral sanctuaries (5). This can target persistent or restricted infection (6)(7)(8). With this in mind, our laboratories pioneered the use of monocytes and monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) as nanoART carriers and drug depots.…”

Bridging the Knowledge of Different Worlds to Understand the Big Picture of Cancer Nanomedicines

“…In recent years, the advances in nanotechnology have offered unprecedent opportunities to advance the treatment of various diseases, including cancer. [2][3][4][5][6][7] The application of nanotechnology in cancer therapy, herein referred as cancer nanomedicines, have received wide spread attention due to the unique physicochemical properties of the nanoparticles with the ability to deliver different therapeutics (e.g., chemotherapeutics and biologics), altering their pharmacokinetic profiles, augmenting their accumulation in the tumors and reducing their toxicity profiles. [8][9][10][11] Nanomedicines aim to improve the balance between therapeutic efficacy and systemic toxicity of conventional chemotherapeutic agents, which lack of specificity, thereby enhancing the therapeutic index of the anticancer drugs.…”

Review on Micro- and Nanolithography Techniques and their Applications

“…Not only micro-and nanolithography has been the main driving technology in the semiconductor and IC industry, it also plays an increasingly important role in manufacturing of commercial microelectromechanical system (MEMS) devices [45][46][47][48][49][50] as well as prototype fabrication in emerging nanoscale science and engineering [51][52][53][54][55][56]. These applications are expected to significantly improve our quality of lives in many ways from electronic gadgets to healthcare and medical devices.…”

“…Some examples of commercial MEMS products include MEMS accelerometers employed in automobiles and consumer electronic devices [45,46], digital micromirror devices (DMD) for display applications in projectors and televisions [45,47,48], and MEMS pressure sensors for detecting pressures in car tires and blood vessels [49,50]. Furthermore, nanoscience and engineering has increasingly contributed to conventional technologies by opening up alternative routes to overcome current technical barriers, to name a few of them, nanoelectronics for denser and faster computing, nanomedicine for diagnosis and treatment of many diseases including cancers [51][52][53][54], heart disease and Alzheimer's disease [55,56], nanoelectromechanical systems for high-sensitivity and high-resolution sensing and manipulating, and nanobiosensors for ultra-low concentration and single molecular detection. Table 1 summarizes the specifications (i.e.…”