Nanotechnology in Medicine - Essay Example

Na chnology in Medicine Introduction Many health care professionals that the application of nanotechnologies in medicine is a very perspective trend. At the same time others consider them to be a beautiful fairytale and a publicity stunt. Some consider nanotechnologies to be an efficient method, while others argue that this method can be harmful for human’s organism. The question is who is right and if nanotechnologies really deserve further development and investments. Many people speak about nanotechnology as about the science and technology revolution, but only few know what it means (Ghalanbor et al, 2005). The world is changing rapidly and many of things, which seemed to be fantastic, are becoming real. Nanomedicine and nanotechnologies change our understanding of human’s organism. It is possible to talk about nanomedicine, which can solve the problems of genetically caused illnesses and biological aging, as about scientific and technical revolution. All the previous scientific and technical revolutions just represented the material created by the nature. The discovery of the area of nanotechnology is a quite different matter. A man became capable of creating a new material, which were unknown or unachievable for the nature. Actually, the science approached the modeling of the principles of living material construction that uses the laws unknown for modern science. The revolution called “nanomedicine” already takes place today. The given paper will prove that nanotechnologies can be useful for people if the use of them is thoroughly supervised by the state. Nanomedicine is a new and perspective scientific medical trend based on the punctual impact on organism on the atomic and molecular levels. According to Peter Cleaveland (2007) “Nanotechnology has traditionally been thought of as something from science fiction or an advance of the future. However, more applications are being developed that can offer practical uses across several industries. Medical device manufacturers have been researching nanotechnology as a solution for biocompatibility issues to antimicrobial coatings to drug delivery mechanisms” (Cleaveland, 2007:1) Nanomedicine prescribes using corresponding physical principles, miniature nanorobots, informational and telecommunication technologies, nanocomputers with artificial intellect and reason. Modern state and the tendency of development of nanotechnologies create the preconditions for the development of cybernetic nanomedicine technologies. This new interdisciplinary trend of medical science now is passing the stage of formation. The majority of its methods now exist only in the form of the projects. However, many experts think that namely these nanotechnological methods will become fundamental in XXI century. Thus, for example, American National Institute of Health included nanomedicine in the five most perspective areas of the development of medicine in XXI century. The National American Institute of Cancer is going to apply the achievements of nanomedicine to cure cancer. According to Robert Service (2005), “Nanotechnologists hope to break the logjam by giving oncologists new tools for tracking and targeting cell surface receptors and other molecules specific to cancer cells. This push toward personalized medicine has been under way for years. For example, the cancer drug Herceptin, which homes in on a receptor called Her-2 that is overexpressed in certain cancer cells, is given only to patients whose diagnostic tests show they carry Her-2 positive cells. Nanotechnologists hope to extend that approach to numerous diagnostics, imaging agents, and medicines” (Service, 2005: 1132) The use of nanotechnology in the therapy of socially essential human illnesses such as oncology and cardiology will allow to eliminate many illnesses form the list of dangerous diseases. People will be able to enjoy life much longer. Service argues: “Nanotechnology’s ability to shape matter on the scale of molecules is opening the door to a new generation of diagnostics, imaging agents, and drugs for detecting and treating cancer at its earliest stages. But perhaps more important, it is enabling researchers to combine advances, creating nanosized particles that contain drugs designed to kill tumors, targeting compounds designed to home in on malignancies, and imaging agents designed to light up even the earliest stage cancers” (Service 2005: 1132). It is essential to mention that nanotechnologies has always presented in our world and brought advantages to people. The brightest and the simplest example of using nanotechnology in medicine is a plain soap liquid that has cleaning and disinfectant effect. It contains nano- particles, micellas. Soap is a wonder in the area of nanotechnology. However, this nanomaterial is not the most important for the development of the modern technology in the area of health care and cosmetology. Another ancient use of nanotechnology in the cosmetology is the use of coloring substances by Australian aborigines; the hair dye of Ancient Greek beauties also contained nanoparticles, which provided long and steadfast effect. Let’s analyze a simple example of using nanotechnologies in medicine. Last time many people apply to doctors with the problem of dry eyes. The violation of tear extraction is a very wide-spread problem today, because of a great variety of new technological achievements like computer of TV. Many hours spent near computer causes the feeling of discomfort in eyes. Due to the violation of the amount or structure of a tear people suffer from redness, burning pain, the feeling of foreign body, photophobia, etc. In order to get rid of unpleasant symptoms people have to use artificial tears and instill them three or four times a day (Kubik et al, 2005). So many drops are needed because plain drops are held badly in an eye. It is explained by the fact that the surface of an eye has a negative electric charge. Nanotechnology can help draw the drops by means of magnetic effect. Artificial tear consists of the drops of grease swimming in the water liquor. With the help of nanotechnology the particles of a positively charged substance are applied on the drops of oil, which are smaller than 200 nano-metres. This help artificial tears obduce the eye and held longer. As a result it is enough to instill only one or two times a day instead of three or four. In practice it provides comfort and essential economy of facilities. This is only the beginning of using nanotechnologies in medicine. “The discovery of novel materials, processes, and phenomena at the nanoscale and the development of new experimental and theoretical techniques for research provide fresh opportunities for the development of innovative nanosystems and nanostructured materials. The properties of materials at the nanoscale can be very different from those at a larger scale. When the dimension of a material is reduced from a large size, the properties remain the same at first, then small changes occur, until finally when the size drops below 100 nm, dramatic changes in properties can occur. If only one length of a three-dimensional nanostructure is of nanodimension, the structure is referred to as a quantum well; if two sides are of nanometer length, the structure is referred to as a quantum wire ” (Bhashan, 2010: 2). The development of nanotechnologies also represents danger for humanity, that is first of all connected with the different provocations. Such provocations appear due to inadequate evaluation of possible global consequences (Mashaghi et al, 2013). That is why the role of the state becomes more important as it should provide the guarantees on providing nanotechnologies. It is not just words or ideas, but it is a reality that is based on the definite facts. These facts show that due to the irresponsibility and incompetence of scientific consultants, which are often serving provocations, humanity regularly appears under the threat of destruction. Basing on the above-mentioned facts, it is possible to make a conclusion that any state, which managed nanotechnologies, is responsible for the destiny of humanity and this responsibility is very serious, because nanotechnologies can be compared to dangerous weapons of mass destruction. Taking into account the huge scale of using nanotechnologies for civil purposes, they can also be applied for military purposes. Conclusion The conclusion can be made that nanotechnologies can be very useful for humanity, but at the same time they may represent danger. For today it is possible to state that no country of the world has corresponding quality standards for nanotechnology. For now the only way is the direct testing the parameters of the devices, which are ready to be exploited. Taking into account the specific peculiarities of quantum mechanics and nuclear physics used for the creation of such devices, it is essential to hold fundament investigations of nano-world laws in order to determine the criteria of nanotechnology evaluation and form technical rules. Certainly, this can’t be done without financial support of the state because such investigations can’t be held for free and the commercial secret should be kept. People always become afraid, when something new appears, and tend to think out different myths about new achievements to prevent their use. We should not forget that we still do not have a medicine for such terrible disease as cancer that kills people every day. Thus, we should not refuse from the opportunity to use new methods as we simply have no choice. The science is developing fast and it is not surprising that in several years nanomedicine will become as reachable as Internet. References Bhashan B 2010, Springer Handbook of Nanotechnology. Springer.com accessed July 4, 2014 at http://www.springer.com/978-3-642-02524-2 Cleaveland, P 2007, Nanotechnology: Huge Future for Small Innovation. Mdtmag.com accessed July 4, 2014 at http://www.mdtmag.com/articles/2007/07/nanotechnology-huge-future-small-innovation Ghalanbor Z, Marashi SA, Ranjbar B 2005,. "Nanotechnology helps medicine: nanoscale swimmers and their future applications". Med Hypotheses 65 (1): 198–199. Kubik T, Bogunia-Kubik K, Sugisaka M 2005, "Nanotechnology on duty in medical applications". Curr Pharm Biotechnol. 6 (1): 17–33 Mashaghi, S.; Jadidi, T.; Koenderink, G.; Mashaghi, A 2013, Lipid Nanotechnology. Int. J. Mol. Sci., 14, 4242-4282 Service, R 2005, Nanotechnology Takes Aim at Cancer, Sciencemag.org. accessed July 4, 2014 Read More