[extropy-chat] NATURE: Nanoparticles enter the brain

[Russell Evermore]

This one piqued my interest, but some aspects of the article did tend to peg
the needle on my bogosity filter.

                                          > from the article --------------
Günter Oberdörster of the University of Rochester in New York and colleagues
tracked the progress of carbon particles that were only 35 nanometres in
diameter and had been inhaled by rats.
                                           --------------<

In this age of information it seems quite reasonable that I should be a few
short clicks from answers to questions like: What kinds of carbon particles
were used - quantum dots, fullerenes, fullerites, fullerides, endohedral,
exohedral? What concentrations were the rats exposed to? Were these
particles confined solely to the olfactory parts of the rats brains? Were
particles of sizes other than 35nm tested?  and were these other sizes
successfully blocked by the BBB?

Instead, even after digging dilligently, these answers and the purported
study remained frustratingly elusive.

                                          > from the article-------------
"These are the first data to show this," says Ken Donaldson, a toxicologist
at the University of Edinburgh, UK. "I would never have thought of looking
for inhaled nanoparticles in the brain."
                                            ------------<

hmmm,  so why then does a quick google of  "nanoparticles" deliver as the
very first hit:  http://www.nanopharm.de/

Researchers at the University of Magdeburg have developed a nanoparticle
technology for the targeting of drugs to the central nervous system (CNS).
Nanoparticles, a drug delivery system to pass the Blood Brain Barrier.

            Advantages over other methods:
                (1) no opening of the blood-brain barrier required,
                (2) potentially any drug can be delivered (hydrophilic or
hydrophobic),
                (3) the drug does not need to be modified.


None of this is to say I would casually stick my nose into a beaker-full of
the stuff,  but note the article does clearly state that "people in cities
take in about 25 million nanoparticles with every breath." That would seem
to me to be strong anecdotal evidence for nanoparticles being somewhat
benign. Additionally, I have read a number of articles that strongly
indicate they may even be beneficial.

RE
nanowave at shaw.ca