Accelerating the Translation of Nanomaterials in Biomedicine

Abstract

Due to their size and tailorable physicochemical properties, nanomaterials are an emerging class of structures utilized in biomedical applications. There are now many prominent examples of nanomaterials being used to improve human health, in areas ranging from imaging and diagnostics to therapeutics and regenerative medicine. An overview of these examples reveals several common areas of synergy and future challenges. This Nano Focus discusses the current status and future potential of promising nanomaterials and their translation from the laboratory to the clinic, by highlighting a handful of successful examples.

Personalized Nanomedicine: A Revolution at the Nanoscale

“…Nevertheless, the number of marketed nanomedicine products only represents one-tenth of them (Figure 3). In 2015 in the USA, only a few nanomedicines had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including: MyocetTM, Abraxane, Doxil, Eligard, Caelyx, DaunoXome, Genexol-PM, and Oncaspar (Table 2) [5,6,13,32,33]. The number of approved nanomedicines in the USA is similar to that corresponding to approved nanomedicines in Europe by the EMA.…”

“…Although many types of nanomedicines exist, i.e., polymeric nanosystems, nanoparticles, magnetic nanoparticles, and liposomes, for example (Figure 2), all of them present common advantages among conventional therapies; which in general modify the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (pK/pD) of the active principles [23]. Specifically, these advantages can be grouped as follows (summarized in Table 1): (1) the size of the nanomaterials is very small, thus resulting in a large surface-to-volume ratio that is advantageous for the fine tuning of the nanomaterial’s surface; (2) activities of a different nature (lipophilic or hydrophilic) can be encapsulated in any type of nanosystem, thus enabling higher doses not possible in traditional therapies due to solubility problems; (3) they protect the encapsulated activities from the environment (e.g., light, nucleases); (4) they modify the pharmacokinetics of the active principles, allowing a controlled active release, which is advantageous to reduce the frequency of dosage and prolong the therapeutic activity; (5) they can be actively directed to the target organ, thus making possible a local therapeutic effect, increasing the therapeutic activity and reducing side effects; (6) the possibility of choosing among different nanosystem types gives nanomedicine the appropriate versatility to design the appropriate specific treatment to achieve a personalized therapy [4,12,15,17,18,19,20,26,27,30,31,32,33]. …”

“…However, although the basic research studies on nanomedicine are numerous, that does not correlate with the limited number of novel nanosystems that have been transformed into clinically commercialized nanomedicines nowadays [4,21,28,32]. In this context, this article attempts to analyze the current impact that nanomedicine research has on the pharmaceutical market and the added value that nanomedicines could give to the current therapies.…”

“…Doxil is still one of the most used nowadays, but many other anticancer nanoformulations have been approved, such as Oncoprex, a lipid nanoparticle containing plasmid DNA that encodes for TUSC2 , a tumor suppressor gene, in Phase II for the treatment of lung cancer in combination with Erlotinib; and Abraxane, albumin nanoparticles encapsulating paclitaxel for the treatment of various types of tumors (see Table 2) [7,12,32,33,34,43,44,45]. …”

Protein Mimetic and Anticancer Properties of Monocyte-Targeting Peptide Amphiphile Micelles

“…24–28 Therapeutic nanoparticles have several advantages over traditional small molecules, including higher payloads, sustained release of drugs, and improved pharmacokinetic profiles. 29–33 To maximize drug delivery, we can tailor nanoparticles with specific physiochemical properties, such as their size and surface chemistry, while including multiple diagnostic or therapeutic agents. 34–39 To stabilize particles against rapid degradation, we can encapsulate them within a lipid layer containing water-soluble polymers such as polyethylene glycol (PEG).…”