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A Beginner's Guide to Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery
- Evan Moloseni
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Technology's impact on medicine goes far beyond MRIs, EKGs, and heart monitors; it extends to innovations so small that they are invisible to the naked eye. This is the realm of nanotechnology.
What is it?
Nanotechnology refers to technological advancements that work at a nanoscale (about 100nm or less). These advancements can be extremely useful in intervention of diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diseases. A significant portion of nanomedicine lies in its great impact on drug delivery, which is defined as "..the concept and ability to manipulate molecules and supramolecular structures for producing devices with programmed functions," (Park, 2007).
How are they made?
These nanoparticle are mainly created through a simple process called double emulsion. To better illustrate double emulsion imagine covering water droplets in oil, then surround those oil particles in larger water droplet, (Park, 2007). Another relatively common method to create this miniscule particles is through solvent exchange (more about this later).
Double Emulsion - To complete this simple process scientist use tools like ultrasonication or homogenizers to mix the layers, and they stabilize these molecules through substances called surfactants, (de et al., 2024).
Solvent Exchange - This method involves dissolving polymers inside an organic solvent, adding water, then stirring the solution under heated conditions. The organic solvent will evaporate and the nanoparticles will be left behind. This method is easier than double emulsion and experienced scientists can control the sizes and properties of the left over nanoparticles (de et al., 2024).
How they work:
First step: Movement: They are guided by magnetic fields, ultrasound and/or light, in contrast, others use chemical reactions to generate a propulsion force, (Hu et al., 2025).
Second step: Targeting: They detect markers (e.g proteins, pH, toxins) near infected areas for specific drug delivery. (Xu et al., 2024).
Final step: Drug Delivery & Release: They hold drugs in compartments, shells or other attached particles, (Gupta et al., 2022).When prompted by a sudden change external factors, like the factors we mentioned earlier, they will release the drug, (Zhang et al., 2022). Super cool right?
Advantages
Targeted Delivery - Due to their structure, scientist can manipulate them to target specific characteristics
that only exist in areas with specific infections (such as toxins released by certain type of bacteria).
Controlled Release - Because they prompted by a sudden change in external factors, this makes for drug release at specific parts of the human body.
Improved mobility -Their small size can help them navigate through tiny areas! Like in brain cancer nanorobots (smaller than 200nm) alongside their surface coat can through barrier that block traditional drugs. (Xu et al., 2024)
Enhanced stability - The implementation of surfactants makes these particles especially stable compared to other medical interventions such as antibiotics.
Let's delve into the different types of nanorobots used for drug delivery!
Liposomes - Tiny bubbles of lipids, great for reducing potential side effects.
Polymeric nano micelles - Nanosized carriers made of polymers that trap drugs in their center, great for more insoluble drugs.
(Zhou et al., 2021) Solid Lipid nanoparticles - Fat-based particles, high stability and biocompatibility.
(Mishra et al., 2018) Dendrimers -Tree-like formation with pockets to hold drugs - great for precise targeting and controlled release. ( See image under polymeric micelles ) .
Quantum dots - Fluorescent nanoparticles used for imaging and drug delivery. used often in cancer diagnostics
Gold nanoparticles - Gold-based particles, triggered by light or heat release.
These are all really cool and innovative approaches to medicine but like anything other innovation, it has its drawbacks. Some these drawbacks include:
Low loading efficiency - As you can imagine, with such a small particles there is only so much substance you can transport.
Poor control over size distribution - Even experienced scientist struggle to keep the size of the nanoparticle homogenous (consistently the same). Though both these issues can be solved using nanopatterning which will allow for high loading efficiency and high homogenous particle sizes, (Park, 2007).
Safety - This is still relatively new, so there is room for potential safety risk, especially since it is entering your body.
Cost - Despite their small size, the development and creation of these nanoparticles is costly tasks, as it takes time and advanced materials and lots of energy.
Regulatory approval - Like any other medical intervention, there is a lot ethical approval required to actually get these nanoparticles working in the human body.
I hope this guide as taught you at least one thing about nanotechnology in drug delivery. Stay tuned as we delve deeper to the different types in future articles!
References
Bahutair, W. N., Abuwatfa, W. H., & Husseini, G. A. (2022). Ultrasound Triggering of Liposomal Nanodrugs for Cancer Therapy: A Review. Nanomaterials, 12(17), 3051–3051. https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12173051
de, A., Barbosa, J., Rafael, Borges, J. C., Nattan, D., & Macário, I. (2024). Synthesis of polymeric nanoparticles by double emulsion and pH-driven: encapsulation of antibiotics and natural products for combating Escherichia coli infections. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 108(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-024-13114-5
Gupta, A., Soni, S., Chauhan, N., Khanuja, M., & Jain, U. (2022). Nanobots-based advancement in targeted drug delivery and imaging: An update. Journal of Controlled Release, 349, 97–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconrel.2022.06.020
Hu, M., Ge, X., Chen, X., Mao, W., Qian, X., & Yuan, W.-E. (2025). Micro/Nanorobot: A Promising Targeted Drug Delivery System. Pharmaceutics, 12(7), 665. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics12070665
Mishra, V., Bansal, K., Verma, A., Yadav, N., Thakur, S., Sudhakar, K., & Rosenholm, J. (2018). Solid Lipid Nanoparticles: Emerging Colloidal Nano Drug Delivery Systems. Pharmaceutics, 10(4), 191. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics10040191
Nanotechnology In Medicine Drug Delivery. (2021). Inspiredpencil.com. https://ar.inspiredpencil.com/pictures-2023/nanotechnology-in-medicine-drug-delivery
Park, K. (2007). Nanotechnology: What it can do for drug delivery. Journal of Controlled Release, 120(1-2), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconrel.2007.05.003
Sengupta, A., Azharuddin, M., Al-Otaibi, N., & Hinkula, J. (2022). Efficacy and Immune Response Elicited by Gold Nanoparticle- Based Nanovaccines against Infectious Diseases. Vaccines, 10(4), 505. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10040505
Vaibhav. (2023, October 12). Unveiling Quantum Dots: Navigating the Nanoworld for Maximum Impact. Medium. https://medium.com/@vaibhavpol49/unveiling-quantum-dots-navigating-the-nanoworld-for-maximum-impact-143827a695ca
Xu, M., Qin, Z., Chen, Z., Wang, S., Peng, L., Li, X., & Yuan, Z. (2024). Nanorobots mediated drug delivery for brain cancer active targeting and controllable therapeutics. Discover Nano, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s11671-024-04131-4
Zhang, D., Liu, S., Guan, J., & Mou, F. (2022). “Motile-targeting” drug delivery platforms based on micro/nanorobots for tumor therapy. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2022.1002171
Zhou, Z., Sun, T., & Jiang, C. (2021). Recent advances on drug delivery nanocarriers for cerebral disorders. Biomedical Materials, 16(2), 024104. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-605x/abdc97
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