Korea IT Times August Contributors: We would like to express our gratitude to the July contributors as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of Korea IT Times. We are now excited to publish the new contributor's article for August.
- Prof. Jong-Shik Kim, PhD: Working with AI, Living with AI
- Essays by Layne Hartsell PhD, and Alexander Krabbe, MD: The Echoes of War: The Specter Advances, A Response for the Sake of Sanity
- Byoung min Im, Columnist : The Courage of India's Prime Minister Modi
- Barnaby Page, VP of IR & Cyber Risk at SentinelOne: Cyber Safeguard: The Insurance Industry's Role in Enhancing Digital Security
- Layne Hartsell, PhD and Ashok Kumar Janakiraman, PharmD: Nanotechnology for the Treatment of Dementia
- Tae-il Kwon, PhD, CEO of Bigsun Systems: Next Generation Wireless Network Technology in the Age of AI
- Jinkook Kim, PhD, CEO of Coreline Soft: The role of AI in lung cancer screening
By Layne Hartsell, PhD and Ashok Kumar Janakiraman, PharmD.
Dementia and brain-related diseases are some of the most feared diseases, considered cruel and insidious, where much of this fear is due to the complicated nature of the brain itself and also a long history of the brain as being off-limits for study. According to the World Alzheimer Report 2023, the number of cases of dementia worldwide is alarmingly rising. An estimated 55 million individuals are affected, which is predicted to double every 20 years to reach 139 million by 2050.
The economic impact of dementia is substantial, with global costs exceeding $1 trillion annually. These costs include direct and indirect medical bills, such as decreased productivity and the financial burden on caretakers. Most dementia patients reside in low- and middle-income countries where access to care is often limited, exacerbating the burden on families and healthcare systems. Visualizing the gradual decline in memory and cognitive function, especially to the extent of losing the ability to recognize loved ones, is challenging, and the effect on families can be devastating.
Thankfully, over the past half-century, the brain has become more of a scientific discussion and how society now relates to the topic is better suited to advancement. Advances have been made ranging from neurosurgery to better pharmaceuticals to treat serious illnesses like schizophrenia, and anxiety/depression, and then advances in counseling and public discussion have helped in an indirect way with better research and innovation.
Dementia such as Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is one of the most important diseases as far as biomedical researchers are concerned due to the clear effects of the illness on the very personhood of those suffering from the degenerative process. One of the major obstacles in treating dementia is the delivery of therapeutic agents into and across the blood-brain barrier (BBB). This physiological barrier tightly regulates the brain’s homeostasis, restricting most drugs from entering.
Today, researchers in nanobiomedicine are looking for possible treatments and solutions where nanotechnology has been considered as the comprehensive technology because of the size with which materials science is able to work. In this sense, we have had nanoscience since the integration of physics and chemistry nearly a century ago. If anyone has seen structures produced by nature such as a flagella ‘motor’, it is a marvel of atomic-level precision. Nature is full of wonders.
Nanoscience is concerned with understanding the various forces and materials at the nano level or 1 billionth of a meter to make adjustments to molecules or even atoms. Nanoscience is the study and attempts to understand the matter at atomic-level precision – where the ‘construction’ occurs by nature of larger materials with minuscule energy inputs such as molecular assembly on RNA to produce proteins.
The concept of nanotechnology was first described at a conference in London in 1974, and atomic-level precision was discussed by physicists 20 years before the London proceedings
Nanotechnology involves the production of materials at the nanoscale. These nanomaterials with a size from 1 to 100 nanometers often display enhanced physical, chemical and biological properties, such as increased surface area and higher stability. Today, an entire new field of nanoethics has developed more accurately called the ethics of new and emerging technologies.
Traditional dementia treatments mainly alleviate the symptoms, rather than address the underlying causes, leading to a significant gap in effective therapies. Different types of nanocarriers, including magnetic nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, quantum dots, polymeric nanocapsules, multifunctional nanoliposomes, and nanoemulsions can be used, allowing targeted drug delivery and enhanced drug efficacy.
Today, scientists are far more precise in measurements in physics and chemistry, therefore, natural phenomena are better understood as a new age of biology has emerged. It is this New Age in which difficult problems such as brain science, genetics of metabolism, circadian rhythm (biological clock) and others are being studied, and applied science occurs in medicine such as the mRNA vaccines and nanoparticles for carrying drugs.
The important benefit of nanoparticles is their size, surface charge, shape and other characteristics that allow for control over distribution of a medication in the body, and in the limitation of toxicity. At the same time, for active pharmaceutical ingredients (medications) in research and the clinic that target the central nervous system to treat dementia-related illnesses such as Alzheimer’s, there is a low clinical success rate with up to 98% of treatments being discontinued due to poor blood-brain barrier permeability. Basically, the medications cannot get to where they need to be effective.
Concerning genetic inheritance in DNA with Alzheimer’s Disease, there are alternative forms of genes located at specific positions on chromosomes called alleles. We inherit two alleles for each gene, one from each parent. For alleles, most will recognize the form in blood type ABO blood group system. Blood types A and B are called ‘codominant’ or equal.
The genes and combinations of alleles make up our genotype, what popularly is called ‘genetics’, and influence our phenotype or what we see such as eye color, skin tone, blood type and so on. In the case of Alzheimer’s Disease, people with certain alleles have a higher risk than those with more common alleles. The specific functional aspect of the disease is the abnormal buildup of tau protein (neurofibrillary tangles) and plaques (amyloid beta). Plaques stick to the outside of the brain cells. These abnormal concentrations of the proteins disrupt the function of brain cells causing cognitive decline.
We think that nanocarriers can help where nanotechnology-based techniques have opened up new avenues for the delivery of both imaging agents and drugs. Referred to as "self-theranostics," ingeniously engineered nanoparticles (NPs) have the potential to serve dual purposes in the detection and treatment of AD.
Nanotechnology-enabled theranostics combines highly sensitive molecular detection with precise medication targeting, with the potential to improve treatment for Alzheimer's disease, prevent memory loss, and enhance life.
Nanocarriers are nanoparticle-based delivery systems or drug-carrying systems. These highly specific structures are 10nm to 1,000nm in size, such as certain lipid peptide structures (fats, peptides or amino acid chains) called liposomes and niosomes and include other forms in herbal extracts (phytosomes). These nanocarriers have been developed to increase the bioavailability and effectiveness of Alzheimer’s drugs in crossing the blood-brain barrier. This layer of cells prevents dangerous substances in the bloodstream from entering the brain, also, at the same time allows, oxygen and nutrients to cross the threshold.
Some of the effective drugs today are Rivastigmine, Donepezil, and Galantamine. What is necessary is better uptake of the medications and that is why ‘nanocarriers’ are being studied.
About the Authors
Layne Hartsell, USA (雷恩∙哈特塞尔 - 마이클레인핫셀) - 3E: Energy, Economy, Environment - research professor at the Asia Institute Tokyo/Berlin, and a fellow at the Center for Science, Technology, and Society, Department of Philosophy, Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. He is a member of the board at Korea IT Times.
Ashok Kumar Janakiraman is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UCSI University. His research is situated in the field of pharmaceutical technology and product development, with a special focus on nanotechnology for drug solubility enhancement, fast melting tablets, topical products, and collaborative R&D in industries such as pharmaceuticals. He also serves as the technical, academic advisor for Geomatica University College, is a fellow of the Einstein Research Academy (ERA), and an associate member of the Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society.
