Role of Nanodiamonds in Drug Delivery and Stem Cell Therapy

CONTEXT: The use of nanotechnology in medicine and more specifically drug delivery is set to spread rapidly. Currently many substances are under investigation for drug delivery and more specifically for cancer therapy. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: Nanodiamonds (NDs) have contributed significantly in the development of highly efficient and successful drug delivery systems, and in stem cell therapy. Drug delivery through NDs is an intricate and complex process that deserves special attention to unravel underlying molecular mechanisms in order to overcome certain bottlenecks associated with it. It has already been established that NDs based drug delivery systems have excellent biocompatibility, nontoxicity, photostability and facile surface functionalization properties. RESULTS: There is mounting evidence that suggests that such conjugated delivery systems well retain the properties of nanoparticles like small size, large surface area to volume ratio that provide greater biocatalytic activity to the attached drug in terms of selectivity, loading and stability. CONCLUSIONS: NDs based drug delivery systems may form the basis for the development of effective novel drug delivery vehicles with salient features that may facilitate their utility in fluorescence imaging, target specificity and sustainedrelease.