Overview

The concept of smart drug delivery vehicles involves designing and preparing a nanostructure (or microstructure) that can be loaded with a cargo, this can be a therapeutic drug, a contrast agent for imaging, or a nucleic acid for gene therapy. The nanocarrier serves to protect the cargo from degradation by enzymes in the body, to enhance the solubility of insoluble drugs, to extend the circulation half-life, and to enhance its penetration and accumulation at the target site. Importantly, smart nanocarriers can be designed to be responsive to a specific stimulus, so that the cargo is only released or activated when desired. In this volume we cover smart nanocarriers that respond to externally applied stimuli that usually involve application of physical energy. This physical energy can be applied from outside the body and can either cause cargo release, or can activate the nanostructure to be cytotoxic, or both. The stimuli covered include light of various wavelengths (ultraviolet, visible or infrared), temperature (increased or decreased), magnetic fields (used to externally manipulate nanostructures and to activate them), ultrasound, and electrical and mechanical forces. Finally we discuss the issue of nanotoxicology and the future scope of the field.

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Mahdi Karimi received his BSc degree in Medical Laboratory Science from the Iran University of Medical Science (IUMS), in 2005. In 2008, he achieved the MSc degree in Medical Biotechnology from Tabriz University of Medical Science and joined the Tarbiat Modares University as a PhD student in the nanobiotechnology field and completed his research in 2013. During his research, in 2012, he affiliated with the laboratory of Professor Michael Hamblin in the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School as a researcher visitor, where he contributed to the design and construction of new smart nanoparticles for drug/gene delivery. On finishing the study, he joined, as Assistant Professor, the Department of Medical Nanotechnology at IUMS. His current research interests include smart nanoparticles' design in drug/gene delivery and microfluidic systems. He has established a scientific collaboration between his lab and Professor Michael Hamblin's lab to design new classes of smart nanovehicles in drug/gene delivery systems. Parham graduated with a BSc from Sahand University of Technology (SUT), Tabriz, Iran, in 2011. He received his MSc in Nanomaterials/Nanotechnology from Sharif University of Technology (SUT), Tehran, Iran. Concurrently, he became the research assistant at the Research Center for Nanostructured and Advanced Materials (RCNAM), SUT, Tehran, Iran. As a BSc and then MSc student he worked on the assessment of the microstructural/mechanical properties of friction stir welded pure copper and friction stir processed hybrid TiO2–Al3Ti–MgO/Al nanocomposites. Furthermore, he has done several experiments on synthesis and characterization of sol–gel fabricated ceramic nanocomposite particles. The advent of innovative nanomaterials and nanotechnology interested him in interfacial sciences/technologies and also nanomedicine, including nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems and nanobiosensors. He has now joined Professor Karimi's Nanobiotechnology Research lab in the Iran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran, in association with Professor Hamblin from Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA; working on smart micro/nanocarriers applied in therapeutic agent delivery systems employed for diagnosis and therapy of various diseases and disorders such as cancers and malignancies, inflammations, infections, etc. Amir did his BSc at Sharif University of Technology (SUT), the most prestigious technical university in Iran. He joined polymeric materials research group since 2012, and received his MSc in Materials Engineering from SUT. For the MSc project, he worked on thermoplastic starch (TPS)/cellulose nanofibers (CNF) biocomposites, under the supervision of Professor Bagheri. He synthesized a fully biodegradable nanocomposite, and evaluated the effects of CNF on mechanical and biodegradation of TPS. His research interests lie in the area of mechanical properties of biopolymers and polymer composites, ranging from material design to the performance of the final product. He also works on micro/nano materials, and bio-based polymers as drug carriers under the supervision of Professor Karimi and Professor Hamblin from Harvard Medical School. Now, he works at Parsa Polymer Sharif, involved in thermoplastics compounding. He would also like to thank Professor Karimi and Professor Hamblin for the opportunity to contribute and most importantly learn about such drug delivery systems. Michael R Hamblin PhD is a principal investigator at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, an associate professor of dermatology, Harvard Medical School and the affiliated faculty of Harvard–MIT Division of Health Science and Technology. He directs a laboratory of around 12 scientists who work in photodynamic therapy and low-level light therapy. He has published 274 peer-reviewed articles, is associate editor for eight journals and serves on NIH study sections. He has edited ten proceedings volumes, together with four other major textbooks on PDT and photomedicine. In 2011 Dr Hamblin was honored by election as a Fellow of SPIE.

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