Lecture 5 - human health Flashcards
Toxicology
Study of effects, antidotes, detection, etc. of poisons
Factors affecting toxicity
Dose, concentration, duration, frequency of exposure, exposure site and route, chemical state
Acute health effects
develop right away
Chronic health effects
long-term
Natural barriers in human body
Mucous, membranes, skin, epithelial cell linings.
The larger the particle sizes the lower the ability to penetrate natural barriers.
Dermal Absorption
Penetration of nanoparticles into the living cells of the epidermal and dermal layers
Nanoneedles and scalpels
Atomic force microscope with a nanoneedle tip has been used to perform surgery on living cells
Laser scalpels
Ultra-fast IR (infared) lasers used to ablate living tissue on the nanoscale without killing adjacent cells
Selective surgery of tagged cells
Laser ablation of gold nanoparticles bound to cancer cells
Targeted drug delivery
Nanobased materials, e.g. hydrophobic drugs in aqueous medium of human body, reducing drug degradation // delivering toxic chemotherapy drugs only to cancer cells and not healthy cells surrounding it // time controlled release of drugs
Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs)
nano-sized particles made of iron and oxygen that can become strongly magnetic when placed in a magnetic field, but lose their magnetism when the field is removed.