Nanomedicine in organ transplantation and regenerative surgery
Nanotechnology in transplant and regenerative surgery is still in its infancy compared with other aspects of nanomedicine. Techniques such as vascularized composite allotransplantation have revolutionized the field, helping hundreds of patients worldwide. However, being such a new venture, there are still many drawbacks; vascularized composite allotransplantation depends on chronic immunosuppression, is subject to donor availability and there are still questions as to how to progress in the case of graft failure.
Nanotechnology has a place in organ transplantation, reconstructive surgery and regenerative medicine and provides a bridge between disciplines needed to improve the current state of transplantation and surgery, especially given the advantages the field provides in diagnostics, monitoring and therapeutics.
Nanomedicine has recently published a Special Focus Issue on ‘Nanomedicine in organ transplantation and regenerative surgery – advances, applications and future directions’. The issue covers many aspects of the field including nanotoxicology, biocompatibility and nanopharmaceutics in terms of design, manufacturing, biosensing and therapeutic drug delivery in relation to regenerative medicine.
Articles include a Commentary entitled: ‘Pharmaceutical care in transplantation: current challenges and future opportunities’ by Jordan Covvey and Erin Mancl from Duquesne University (PA, USA) and a Review article from Amber Nagy and Nicholas Robbins (Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, TX, USA) on ‘The hurdles of nanotoxicity in transplant nanomedicine’, which reviews the current state of nanotoxicology in immunosuppressant therapies and looks forward to challenges that may occur and how to overcome them.
The goal of the issue is to bring transplant nanomedicine to the fore of nanomedical research, with impacts in targeted and precision medicine and to reach a point where the advances can be seen in the clinic with minimal side effects.
For access to exclusive behind the scenes features such as videos, interviews with the authors and comments from the guest editors, see the full In Focus on RegMedNet.
To read the entire issue, including open access papers and a foreword from the guest editors, Vijay Gorantla and Jelena Janjic, visit the Nanomedicine journal.
