The ancillary effects of nanoparticles and their implications for nanomedicine. Review uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Nanoparticles are often engineered as a scaffolding system to combine targeting, imaging and/or therapeutic moieties into a unitary agent. However, mostly overlooked, the nanomaterial itself interacts with biological systems exclusive of application-specific particle functionalization. This nanoparticle biointerface has been found to elicit specific biological effects, which we term 'ancillary effects'. In this Review, we describe the current state of knowledge of nanobiology gleaned from existing studies of ancillary effects with the objectives to describe the potential of nanoparticles to modulate biological effects independently of any engineered function; evaluate how these effects might be relevant for nanomedicine design and functional considerations, particularly how they might be useful to inform clinical decision-making; identify potential clinical harm that arises from adverse nanoparticle interactions with biology; and, finally, highlight the current lack of knowledge in this area as both a barrier and an incentive to the further development of nanomedicine.

publication date

  • November 10, 2021

Research

keywords

  • Nanomedicine
  • Nanoparticles
  • Nanostructures
  • Systems Biology

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC9031277

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 85118864355

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1038/s41565-018-0246-4

PubMed ID

  • 34759355

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 16

issue

  • 11