Nano Drugs: Are They Safe? Their Toxicity and Regulatory Aspects

Abstract In the recent era, the field of nanoscience and technology emerged as a boon in health-related sectors. Conventional drug delivery involves the use of a drug in an acceptable form, like a compressed pill for oral administration or an answer for blood vessel administration. These indefinite quantity forms are found to possess serious limitations in terms of upper indefinite quantity needed with lower effectiveness, toxicity, and adverse effects, etc. Drug targeting to specific organs and tissues by novel drug delivery devices such as dendrimers, liposomes, nanoparticles, micelles, and carbon nanotubes has become an essential endeavor of the new century. The searched for new drug delivery approaches and new modes of action represent one frontier area that involves a multidisciplinary scientific approach to provide major advances in rising therapeutic index and bioavailability at site-specific delivery. But some site-specific toxicity, interaction with biologic membranes, blood- and tissue-related toxicity, and nephrotoxicity has already been reported. Despite a robust demand for fostering these nanomedicines, their explicit properties have raised vital challenges for trade and restrictive agencies. In fact, there has been a general lack of specific protocols to characterize and standardize precisely those nanomedicines.