Evaluation of the use of nanotechnology in pharmaceutical applications and the toxic effects of nanoparticles

Nanotechnology is a term that refers to the use of nano-structures in technological fields such as electronic, magnetic, mechanical. With the use of nanotechnology in medicine and pharmaceuticals, the concepts of nanomedicine and nanopharmaceuticals have entered our lives. Nanopharmaceuticals have been developed to take advantage of the unique properties of nanostructures. Nanopharmaceuticals give very effective results in diagnosis, treatment and therapeutic applications. In the studies, nanopharmaceuticals made of different materials are used for different administration routes and different dosage forms. The results of the studies show that nanopharmaceuticals are promising in increasing the efficiency of diagnosis and treatment and reducing side effects. However, the toxicity of nanopharmaceuticals is an important problem. The physicochemical properties of nanostructures have a direct effect on their toxic properties. Even when the macro form of the same material is non toxic, the nano form can be toxic due to features such as small particle size and high surface area; in addition, it has been determined that the toxic effect is affected by many variables. Therefore, determining the toxicity of the respective nanopharmaceutical for each application requires reliable characterization of the structure and application of standard toxicity test methods. However, as determined within the scope of our study, nanopharmaceutical-specific standards have not been defined by national or international regulatory authorities for characterization and toxicity tests. This explains the reason for the variations among the study results in the literature and makes it impossible to generalize about the toxic effects and causes of nanopharmaceutical types. Since the toxic properties of nanopharmaceuticals are affected by many parameters, a robust characterization method should be developed and toxicity assessments should be made with well-designed methods. Key Words: nanomedicine, drug targetting, drug delivery, toxicity.