Smart Nanoparticles Deliver Hydrogen and Other Therapeutic Gases to Diseased Tissue
- Authors
- Luodan Yu, Ping Hu, Yu Chen
- Journal
- Advanced Materials
- Year
- 2018
- DOI
- 10.1002/adma.201801964
- Study Type
- clinical
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- China
- Health Condition
- Various diseases requiring gas therapy
- Body System
- Cardiovascular
TL;DR
Scientists created tiny nanoparticles that can produce healing gases like oxygen and nitric oxide directly inside your body to treat diseases. This is exciting because it's a new way to deliver medicine exactly where it's needed, and it could eventually help treat lots of different health problems.
Key Finding
Gas-generating nanoplatforms represent an emerging approach for delivering therapeutic gases—including hydrogen—directly to diseased tissues through engineered nanoparticles that can be activated by either external triggers or disease-specific conditions.
Summary
This is a review article that examines how scientists are designing tiny particles (nanoplatforms) that can generate therapeutic gases, including hydrogen, inside the body. These particles are designed to deliver gases like hydrogen, nitric oxide, and hydrogen sulfide directly to diseased areas, either triggered by external stimuli or activated by the disease environment itself. The article surveys different types of nanoparticles being developed for this purpose and their potential uses in both diagnosis and treatment.
Practical Takeaway
This is a review of laboratory and early-stage research on nanoparticle technology, not a study testing hydrogen water or hydrogen gas in humans. While it identifies hydrogen as a potentially therapeutic gas being explored in nanoplatform research, this work is still in development stages and does not provide evidence about the safety or effectiveness of hydrogen for any health condition in people.
Abstract
The fast advances of theranostic nanomedicine enable the rational design and construction of diverse functional nanoplatforms for versatile biomedical applications, among which gas‐generating nanoplatforms (GGNs) have emerged very recently as unique theranostic nanoplatforms for broad gas therapies. Here, the recent developments of the rational design and chemical construction of versatile GGNs for efficient gas therapies by either exogenous physical triggers or endogenous disease‐environment responsiveness are reviewed. These gases involve some therapeutic gases that can directly change disease status, such as oxygen (O2), nitric oxide (NO), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and sulfur dioxide (SO2), and other gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), dl‐menthol (DLM), and gaseous perfluorocarbon (PFC) for supplementary assistance of the theranostic process. Abundant nanocarriers have been adopted for gas delivery into lesions, including poly(d,l‐lactic‐co‐glycolic acid), micelles, silica/mesoporous silica, organosilica, MnO2, graphene, Bi2Se3, upconversion nanoparticles, CaCO3, etc. Especially, these GGNs have been successfully developed for versatile biomedical applications, including diagnostic imaging and therapeutic use. The biosafety issue, challenges faced, and future developments on the rational construction of GGNs are also discussed for further promotion of their clinical translation to benefit patients.