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IL VENTAGLIO
65
W
ill the next few years be the time of
nanopharmaceuticals? In the U.S. and Europe there
are already about 40 approved nano drugs and
substances used in diagnostics, and it might be said
that not a week passes without new ones being tested and proposed.
Miniaturization of the active substance or of the marker, in fact,
radically changes its chemical-physical characteristics and often gives
the substances new, potentially desirable properties, such as the use
of much lower doses of the active ingredients. But are these changes
only positive? In an attempt to provide an answer and resize a field
that is often subject to unfounded enthusiasm and alarm, Ruth
Duncan and Rogerio Gaspar, researchers at the Research Institute
for Medicines and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Lisbon, have just
published “Molecular Pharmaceutics” a massive review of over 500
studies from the early research (tracing the history of nanomedicine
as well) up to the latest findings.
In summary, the picture that emerges is of a kind of continual
distortion, because the data are not such as to allow a surrender
to unconditional approval or to induce fear of adverse effects that
have not been demonstrated. Indeed, there is much that is yet to be
explored. An important step in this direction is that being taken by
researchers at the Norwegian Radium Hospital, who after four years
of testing with special magnetic and fluorescent probes have come
to a less than reassuring conclusion about the fate of nanoparticles
in the body: because not all are eliminated, the risks linked to taking
nanopharmaceuticals over time may not be negligible. As reported
in “Nano Letters,” in fact, nanoparticles with a diameter between 30
and 100 nanometers (typical of drugs and diagnostic substances)
bound to the protein used to carry them within the cells remain
inside the cells themselves, and tend to accumulate and interfere
with vital circuits (see figure). Hence the fears that, especially if
taken for curing chronic diseases, they may favor the onset of serious
illnesses like cancer and, most importantly, a pressing invitation to
learn much more about this kind of effect before approving a new
drug, because the nano size may create problems not present with
traditional medications.
Questions
1.
What does the acronym HAL
stand for?
2.
How does HAL work?
3.
What structure does HAL have?
4.
Who was HAL designed for?
5.
What are the advantages
of nanopharmaceuticals?
6.
What are the risks involved
in taking nanopharmaceuticals?
is it the time of
nanopharmaceuticals?
Small dimensions
for the industry
The dimensions are
also the positive side of
nanopharmaceuticals:
in a study published in
“Nature Nanotechnology”,
researchers at the University
of Copenhagen have shown
us how, by playing with
nanoreactors, to get drugs
in solutions so small as to
be almost unimaginable:
in less than a femtoliter,
i.e., in volumes equal to
10
−19
liters. If this could
be done on an industrial
scale – and the authors are
convinced that it can – the
benefits (from the point of
view of sustainability) would
be too obvious for the
pharmaceutical industry and
beyond.