Chapter 5: Nanoparticles in Biomedicine and Medicine, and Possible Clinical Toxicological Application of Peripheral Lymphocytes in the Risk Assessment Process for Susceptible Disease State Individuals

Nanoparticle usage has emerged in the medical field as a technology well-suited to the diagnosis and treatment of a variety of disease states. The distinctive characteristics of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) such as higher surface-area-to-volume ratios find various applications in personal care products, food packaging, drug-delivery systems, therapeutics, biosensors and others. The exponential increase in ENP-containing consumer products in the last decade has also increased their inadvertent release into the environment and the debate relating to their adverse effects on human and environmental health. The use of NPs for different functions in human studies has significantly increased the application of NPs in biomedicine, for instance, imaging of cell and tissues, drug delivery and sensing of target molecules. These nanomaterials have been investigated for the treatment and detection of various pathological conditions. There are suitable biological systems now available in man using peripheral blood lymphocytes to determine the effect of NPs in various disease states.