Young researchers at the University of York are proposing to replace conventional medical injections with the controlled use of nanoparticles, the carrier of which will be the "nano-patch" now being developed as part of the Nanject project.
There are many areas of application for nano-technologies in the modern world, and one of the most important areas in which "ultra-small" devices can bring invaluable benefits is medicine.
According to the students of the University of York, thanks to nano-technologies, medical procedures can become a thing of the past, which should be considered irreversibly outdated and even dangerous: in particular, ordinary injections (as doctors call the injections that frightened many of us in childhood), not only sometimes require professional preparation, but also often carry the threat of infection.
Atif Syed and Zakareya Hussein launched the Nanject research project to develop a high-tech alternative to injection - the so-called Nano Patch. According to the idea of young scientists, the nano-patch should contain nano-particles with magnetic properties. These particles penetrate through the skin into the human circulatory system and then rush along it to a given area in the body.
In one variant of their use, it is planned to attach microscopic doses of chemical preparations to the nanoparticles themselves in order to deliver the drugs exactly to the target - a specific organ or tissue. It should be noted that this approach allows avoiding side effects, fulfilling the main task of "targeted" medicine.
No less interesting is another application for nanoparticles released by the Nano-plaster. By acting on magnetic nano-particles from the outside, they can be heated to a temperature that poses a direct danger to specific types of cells (controlled hyperthermia). Having caught on to the "malfunctioning" cells, the heated nanoparticles, in fact, kill these cells, then cool down to normal temperature, after which they naturally leave the body.
In the near future, not only medical preparations, but, possibly, vitamins, dietary supplements will be delivered to the parts of the body that need them especially by nano-robots - more advanced versions of nano-particles that are created during the Nanject project.
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