The Encounter of Smart Drugs and the Intelligent Body
A while ago, a message circulated on social media that resonated with many readers:
“Acetaminophen has more empathy for relieving pain than many people do!”
But is acetaminophen truly an empathetic or “smart” drug? In reality, acetaminophen doesn’t even relieve the inflammation that causes pain. Instead, it prevents the brain from releasing compounds that generate the sensation of pain. As a result, without addressing the root cause, the pain is simply silenced. Yet the ability of all drugs isn’t limited to merely suppressing pain. Medications that actually treat the underlying cause demonstrate a higher level of what we might call “intelligence” or sophistication.
MSTF media reports:
Drugs enter the body through various routes including ingestion, inhalation, injection, or skin absorption. Regardless of the entry method, a drug’s journey in the body is akin to the experience of students in the Magic School Bus cartoon series embarking on an educational field trip. The design, composition, and delivery of the “bus” that carries the drug, and how effectively it reaches its destination, fall under the process known as drug delivery.
Many drugs travel through the circulatory system. However, not all carriers are permitted to enter the bloodstream; most drugs must first pass through the liver, where they undergo modification before entering circulation. The drug’s structure is designed to bind with specific receptors located on target cells to produce the desired effect. But it’s not that simple. A single dosage doesn’t reach all target cells in just one trip through the bloodstream. The drug must circulate repeatedly, with only portions of it reaching its target receptors each time.
Meanwhile, other non-target cells may have receptors similar to those on the intended cells. Consequently, some drug molecules bind to these unintended receptors, leading to side effects—unwanted actions that are difficult to prevent. A portion of the drug is also gradually broken down in the bloodstream, while the rest is eventually filtered through the kidneys and excreted via urine.
Smart Drug Delivery: Increasing Drug Intelligence
Traditional drug delivery methods come with drawbacks such as instability, misdirection, uncontrolled release, irritation, pain, and slow absorption. This led to the emergence of nanoparticles, ranging from 1 to 100 nanometers, in the late 1970s—ushering in the field of nanomedicine and a subfield called smart drug delivery, aimed at making treatments more precise and less harmful.
Using nanoparticles, a highly advanced “bus” called a nanocarrier can be designed to deliver the drug all the way to its target destination. Not only does this bus carry the drug into the bloodstream, but it also guides it to the exact target cell. Smart drug delivery uses nanocarriers such as nanoemulsions, liposomes (tiny fat-based vesicles), and dendrimers—symmetrical molecules with branching structures that surround a core, giving them unique physical and chemical properties. These carriers encase the drug and attach to the target cell’s receptors through complementary binding. Depending on the drug’s release mechanism, it is discharged either in the cytoplasm or into specific organelles within the cell.
A Smart Bus Against the Silent Killer
Diabetes is known as a silent disease that can turn into a silent killer. In diabetes, the body either doesn’t produce enough insulin or can’t use the insulin it does produce effectively. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas that regulates blood sugar. Therefore, people with diabetes must take insulin daily.
Patients use a device called a glucometer to measure their blood sugar levels and then inject insulin accordingly. This process involves pricking the fingertip to draw blood for testing, followed by insulin injection. For many patients, especially children, this is a painful and difficult routine.
Diabetes can be caused not only by genetics but also by poor lifestyle choices, lack of exercise, and obesity, its prevalence has significantly increased in recent years. This rise has prompted researchers to explore smart drug delivery as a solution for diabetes.
In 2003, Jackie Ying, founding executive director of the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) in Singapore and a faculty member at MIT, announced a major breakthrough. Her team developed a nanocarrier for smart insulin delivery. The carrier, designed with nanoparticles sensitive to blood sugar levels, encases insulin like a capsule. These particles can enter the body painlessly through oral intake or nasal passages and reach the bloodstream. When blood sugar levels rise, the sugar-sensitive component detects the change and releases insulin accordingly. Ying was honored at the first Mustafa(pbuh) Prize.
Ying and her team at IBN have achieved more than 400 inventions, with 80 having commercial applications. Their work includes small-scale cell culture for drug testing, diagnostic kits for diseases like dengue and influenza, and microfilters for detecting circulating cancer cells. They’ve also developed nanotechnology-based cancer treatments and rapid diagnostic tools during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ying believes nanotechnology is a powerful tool for drug delivery, tissue engineering, and disease diagnostics. Her goal is to harness this technology to improve global health. With the continued efforts of researchers like Ying, smart drug delivery may serve as a valuable ally in helping the body intelligently fight disease.
