Nanomedicine in India: Retrospect to prospects

The word, “nano” has its origin from a Greek word, “nanos”, meaning dwarf. Scientifically speaking, it may be referred to as one-billionth of a meter, i.e., 10-9m. Of late, the nanotechnology-enabled solutions have fascinated the scientific community across the globe. One of the major applications of nanotechnology is nanomedicine, i.e., a highly specific medical intervention at the molecular scale for curing a disease or repairing a damaged tissue. Nanomedicinal agents circumvent the frequent hiccups that the traditional medicinal agents pose owing to their inadequate pharmacokinetic and biopharmaceutical attributes.

Nanomedicines have been successfully employed to distribute the therapeutically active drug molecules only to the desired site of action, without affecting healthy organs and tissues. Targeted nanotechnology-based methods have been endeavoured for treating various diseased conditions like cancer, diabetes, and infectious disorders, including bacterial, fungal and viral like AIDS. With nearly 75 per cent of the publications and more than half of the patents, nano-based drug delivery constitutes the largest market segment of nanomedicine sector, followed by diagnostics. Today, nanomedicine has permeated in all the domains related to medical science, as illustrated in Figure 1.

Popularity of nanomedicine is escalating to attain safe and effective therapy, offering numerous benefits including:

• Personalized health care
• Improved bioavailability
• Sustained and controlled release
• Site-specific targeting
• Lack of occlusion of blood capillaries
• Easier transport across most physiological bio-barriers
• Protection of fragile drugs/proteins from harsh biological environment
• Faster, safer and more precise disease diagnosis
• Better accuracy and less invasiveness

Nanomedicine today is a large industry, with its sales crossing scores of billion dollars with over 400 companies and over 50 products worldwide. Nanorobotics is now being widely explored allowing doctors to perform direct in vivo surgery. Nanomedicine also acts for tissue repair and wound healing through these nanorobots. Nanonephrology utilizes nanotechnology in the form of nanodevices and nanomaterials for the purpose of diagnosis and therapeutics of renal disorders.

Nanomedicine in India
The roots of nanomedicine are embedded deep into the Indian society and culture. Our ancestors had been unwittingly using nanotechnology for over 2,000 years. Ancient Indian nobilities used nano-silver tableware to prevent food poisoning, owing to the inherent antibacterial effect of nanosilver. The concept of reduction in particle size of metals for medicinal use has prevailed since the times of Charak Samhita, i.e., around 1500 BC, in the form of fine powder, Ayaskriti, usually in nanometeric range. Curcumin, main dietary component of “Haldi” or turmeric, has been consumed, since millennia, only after its intimate admixture with oils or ghee, as this forms nanomicelles readily absorbable in the body. Nanometallic and nanomineral preparations in the form of various kinds of “Bhasma’s” have been used in the Indian subcontinent since the 7th century AD. All bhasmas have some common properties of rasayna’s like immuno-modulation, anti-aging, etc. and yogavahi, i.e., ability to carry drugs to target(s) (Table 1).

Nanoparticles (NPs) hold tremendous promise almost in all the domains of nanomedicine. Their unique size-dependent properties make them indispensable in nanomedicine and nanobiomedicine. These can be prepared by a multitude of techniques using wide range of materials such as polymers, lipids, carbon, and organometallic compounds. Various NPs employed in drug delivery are depicted pictographically in Figure 2.

Emergence of nanomedicine in India has witnessed the engagement of a diverse set of players, each with their own respective agendas and roles. Work has also been carried out in the domain of “Nanotechnology-on-a-chip”, another remarkable dimension and advancement, at IIT, Bombay and IISc, Bangalore. The sector of nanomedicine has received a shot in the arm through some major initiatives by various gubernatorial funding agencies like DST, DBT, ICMR, UGC and CSIR. (Figure 3).

Industrial perspectives
Indian industries are now sensing business opportunities in nanomedicine. They have started realizing the commercial worth and viability of nanotechnology-based products and their impact on national economy. It is estimated that around 100 companies are working on the scope of nanotechnology in the area of pharma or nanobiopharma, while more than half a dozen have even commercialized nanotechnology-based products. Indian companies like Biocon, Lifecare Innovations, Cadila, Lupin, Cipla, Sun Pharma, Ranbaxy, etc., have already commercialized nanotechnology-based products. Box 1 enlists few important technological transfers that have been carried out in the area of nanomedicine in India.

Challenges and Issues
With the advent of nanotechnology in the area of patient health, the concerns specific to nanoscale materials have started posing serious challenges and issues. Nanoparticles, per se, are not inevitably hazardous, but have unique characteristics that tend to question their safety for human use. On increase in surface area, for instance, many inaccessible organs and tissues are put in the way of nanoparticles, causing potential harm. Sophisticated instrumentation, technical know-how and financial constraints also act as impediments in the commercial development of these systems.

Parallel to this, the moral codes and ethics hold a high place in the current society. Primarily, the responsibility of strengthening and implementing the legislations in the domain of nanotechnology today lies with the Ministry of Health.

Till date, there are no specific governmental policies in place to govern these nanotechnology-based issues. Although the government spends more than a billion dollars on nanotechnology research annually, there are hardly any legislations and regulations in India that specifically address to nanomaterials or nanoparticles. Hence, the burning need today is to invigorate the endeavors of various governmental bodies to join hands and bring out the draft guidance at the earliest. This would help a great deal in boosting the translation of safe and effective nano-based research to the apt technological outcomes, worth being introduced into the Indian populace.

The world at large is looking towards tangible outcomes of nanomedicinal research from the Indian scientists. To accomplish such objectives, we have to carry out retrospective study of this realm encrypted in our epics like Vedas and Sutras. The  knowledge and knowhow excavated from these chronicles could yield potential solution for scientific treatment of various ailments, hitherto uncured. This requires synergistic and symbiotic venture from scientists and practitioners working in diverse domains of drug delivery, nanotechnology, biomedical sciences, and of course, the traditional disciplines of medicine like Unani and Ayurveda.