Immune response to nanomaterials: implications for medicine and literature review

Nanomaterials, substances below 100 nm, are increasingly used in medical diagnosis and treatment every day. The use of such materials has helped deliver drugs across the blood-brain barrier, alleviate allergy symptoms, specifically target cancer or HIV cells, and more. However, the tunable characteristics of such materials have not been perfected. The different materials, sizes, shapes, and structures have different responses on the body. This paper will investigate the successful treatments made with nanoparticles and some general health effects. A review of the literature revealed an inflammatory response and an increased production of reactive oxidative species (ROS) to be common immune responses to nanomaterial use. The mechanisms by which the inflammatory response and ROS production occur will also be discussed.