Nanotechnology device Allows Precise Drug Timing

Nanotechnology device Allows Precise Drug Timing

Author JoeDigital

Researchers at MIT have managed to use nanotechnology to accurately time the release of drugs within a body. Before you get a picture in your head of super-tiny robots running around spraying drugs, let me point out that nanoparticles and nanorobots are two entirely different things. The concept is really a simple one: different particles melt when exposed to different levels of infrared light.

This method of administering medication has an advantage over traditional methods, because it allows the chemical to be placed directly at the site where it is needed, rather than infusing the entire circulatory system. This means that particularly lethal medications can be pinpointed to the tumors they are intended to affect, without damaging the tissue around it.

The way it works is that a particular drug is covered in a nanoparticle, sometimes of gold, and then administering using traditional methods. Once the drug has arrived at the site where it is needed, and then the nanoparticle is melted using mnear-infrared light, releasing the drugs exactly where it can do the most good. This process will even allow multiple drugs to be given in one dosage, and then activated at the required time individually.

By using nanoparticles that melt at different wavelengths, it vbecomes possible to adminiter sever drugs at once, and then activate them when the time is right to do so. “Just by controlling the infrared wavelength, we can choose the release time,” said Andy Wijaya, the report’s lead author.

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