Nanomedicine Activities in the United States and Worldwide

This chapter describes some of the main applications of nanomedicine, including drug delivery, diagnostics, and scaffolds for tissue regeneration. Nanoparticles show a wide variety of potential medical applications, including targeted delivery of drugs, diagnostics for in vitroand in vivo use, and fabrication of scaffolds. For instance, the earliest nanoparticle drug to receive approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States was Doxil, which is a pegylated liposomal formulation encapsulating dox-orubicin. In the case of viruses, an example of a biomimetic nanodelivery system is virus mimicking (VM) nanogel vehicle, composed of a nanoparticle with two hydrophilic polymer layers encapsulating a hydrophilic layer containing doxorubicin. The VM nanogel vehicle expands as the pH decreases, resulting in endosomal escape and release of doxorubicin. The chapter discusses select nanotherapeutics, implantable nanodevices, nanoscaffolds, and nanodiagnostic devices that are currently on the market.