Broader Aspects of Nanopharmaceutical Safety: Need for an Integrated Approach
Broader Aspects of Nanopharmaceutical Safety: Need for an Integrated Approach
Nanoparticulate drug carriers and multifunctional nanoparticles are beginning to provide a range of unique therapeutic and diagnostic opportunities. However, there is an increasing concern regarding nanoparticle safety for human use, but these are not often viewed within the context of clinical dosing, administration route, and pathological conditions in question. A complex array of interrelated physicochemical and biological factors control nanoparticle pharmacokinetics, site-specific targeting, therapeutic efficacy and safety, and these have been reviewed recently. From a clinical perspective, it is imperative to identify and translate realistic opportunities offered by understanding of pathophysiological processes to the design and engineering of efficient and safe nanopharmaceuticals. Such strategies will most likely enhance benefit-to-risk ratio, as opposed to empirical approaches that tend to find forced biomedical applications for a broad range of emerging nanomaterials, which eventually contributes to increased toxicity concerns.