ABSTRACT
Nano targeted smart drug delivery systems and nanomedicine formulations aim to improve the bio-distribution and the target site accumulation of systemically administered (chemo) therapeutic agents. This chapter summarizes the many different types of devices evaluated over the years, including for instance liposomes, polymers, micelles and antibodies, and the evidence showing that these sub micrometer-sized carrier materials are able to improve the balance between the efficacy and the toxicity of therapeutic interventions. The third major development pathway of nanomedicine-molecular nanotechnology (MNT) allows doctors to perform direct in vivo surgery on individual human cells. In the last section of Chapter 8, we have described one of the newest nano-device systems based on not only smart or environmentally responsive systems but also designed and developed using robotic concepts: the nano-robots. Emerged as “sci-fiction based devices”, these systems have shown essential conditions for acting as nano smart drug delivery systems and for carrying other therapeutic agents such as oxygen. Additionally, some strategies for the development of combined devices, which can enhance the outcomes individual treatments, are described.
