Anti-HIV Using Nanotech

Nanorobots are nanodevices that will be used for the purpose of maintaining and protecting the human body against pathogens. Nano is one billionth of one. Nanotechnology is the technology in which the operations are performed on nanometrics. It is the application of different technologies primarily interested in the reduction of size.

The credential part of this paper gives the theoretical application of nanodevices in the treatment of AIDS. There is no technology for the treatment of AIDS. Some of the drugs of specific composition are given to the patients depending on the intensity of the disease. The drugs using nowadays are able to increase the lifetime to a few years only. To make the treatment more specific, we use the nanodevices that use nanosensors to sense the AIDS infected Web’s. In this we are using nanorobots to get back the HIV infected Web’s. By doing so constant levels of Web’s are maintained in the blood stream. Thus the AIDS patient is provided with the immune system so that he can defend himself from diseases.

NANOTECHNOLOGY:

Nano is one billionth of one. Now we have the so-called microprocessors and microarray technology that would reach the nano level within a few decades, we suppose. Some call this technology to be nanotechnology and some others name it the molecular nanotechnology, to be specific.

REASONS FOR APPLYING NANOTECHNOLOGY TO BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS:

Most animal cells are 10,000 to 20,000 nanometers in diameter. This means that nanoscale devices (having at least one dimension less than 100 nanometers) can enter cells and the organelles inside them to interact with DNA and proteins. Tools developed through nanotechnology may be able to detect disease in a very small amount of cells or tissue. They may also be able to enter and monitor cells within a living body. Miniaturization will allow the tools for many different tests to be situated together on the same small device. This means that nanotechnology could make it possible to run many diagnostic tests simultaneously as well as with more sensitivity. In general, nanotechnology may offer a faster and more efficient means for us to do much of what we do now


NANOMEDICINE:

The emerging field of nanorobotics is aimed at overcoming the shortcomings present in the traditional way of treatment of patients. Our bodies are filled with intricate, active molecular structures. When those structures are damaged, health suffers. Modern medicine can affect the work of the body in many ways, but from a molecular viewpoint it remains crude. Molecular manufacturing can construct a range of medical instruments and devices with greater abilities. The human body can be seen as a workyard, construction site, and battleground form molecular machines. It works remarkably well; using systems so complex that medical science still doesn’t understand many of them.

BIOMEDICAL APPILICATIONS OF NANOROBOTS:

The enormous potential in the biomedical capabilities of nanorobots and the imprecision and side effects of medical treatments today make nanorobots very desirable. But today, in this revolutionary era we propose for nanomedical robots, since they will have no difficulty in identifying the target site cells even at the very early stages which cannot be done in the traditional treatment and will ultimately be able to track them down and destroy them wherever they may be growing. By having these Robots, we can refine the treatment of diseases by using biomedical, nanotechnological engineering.

WHAT IS A MEDICINAL NANOROBOT:

Nanorobots are theoretical microscopic devices measured on the scale of nanometers (1 nm equals one millionth of a millimeter). When fully realized from the hypothetical stage, they would work at the atomic, molecular and cellular level to perform tasks in both the medical and industrial fields that have heretofore been the stuff of science fictionNanomedicine’s nanorobots are so tiny that they can easily traverse the human body. Scientists report the exterior of a nanorobot will likely be constructed of carbon atoms in a diamondoid structure because of its inert properties and strength. Super-smooth surfaces will lessen the likelihood of triggering the body’s immune system, allowing the nanorobots to go about their business unimpeded. Glucose or natural body sugars and oxygen might be a source for propulsion, and the nanorobot will have other biochemical or molecular parts depending on its task.

According to current theories, nanorobots will possess at least rudimentary two-way communication; will respond to acoustic signals; and will be able to receive power or even re-programming instructions from an external source via sound waves. A network of special stationary nanorobots might be strategically positioned throughout the body, logging each active nanorobot as it passes, then reporting those results, allowing an interface to keep track of all of the devices in the body. A doctor could not only monitor a patient’s progress but change the instructions of the nanorobots in vivo to progress to another stage of healing. When the task is completed, the nanorobots would be flushed from the body.

IMPLEMENTATION: ANTI - HIV USING NANOTECHNOLOGY:

AIDS:

The virus responsible for the condition known as AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome), is named HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). AIDS is the condition whereby the body's specific defense system against all infectious agents no longer functions properly. There is a focused loss over time of immune cell function, which allows intrusion by several different infectious agents, the result of which is loss of the ability of the body to fight infection and the subsequent acquisition of diseases such as pneumonia.

The immune system is a system within all vertebrates (animals with a backbone) which in general terms, is comprised of two important cell types: the B-cell and the T-cell. The B-cell is responsible for the production of antibodies (proteins which can bind to specific molecular shapes), and the T-cell (two types) is responsible either for helping the B-cell to make antibodies, or for the killing of damaged or "different" cells (all foreign cells except bacteria) within the body. The two main types of T-cells are the "helper"T-cell and the cytotoxic T-cell. The T-helper population is further divided into those which help B-cells (Th2) and those which help cytotoxic T-cells (Th1). Therefore, in order for a B-cell to do its job requires the biochemical help of Th2 helper T-cells; and, for a cytotoxic T-cell to be able to eliminate a damaged cell (say, a virally-infected cell), requires the biochemical help of a Th1 helper T-cell.

IMMUNESYSTEM:

Whenever any foreign substance or agent enters our body, the immune system is activated. Both B- and T-cell members respond to the threat, which eventually results in the elimination of the substance or agent from our bodies. If the agent is one which goes inside one of our cells and remains there most of the time (intracellular pathogens like viruses or certain bacteria which require the inside of one of our cells in order to live), the "best" response is the activation of cytotoxic T-cells (circulate in the bloodstream and lymph), which eliminate the agent through killing of the cell which contains the agent (agent is otherwise "hidden"). Both of these kinds of responses (B-cell or cytotoxic T-cell) of course require specific helper T-cell biochemical information as described above. Usually, both B-cell and cytotoxic T-cell responses occur against intracellular agents which provides a two-pronged attack. Normally, these actions are wonderfully protective of us. The effect of HIV on the immune system is the result of a gradual (usually) elimination of the Th1 and Th2 helperT-cellsub-populations.

OPERATION OF HIV:

How HIV Specifically Affects the Immune System

Remember about the proteins, which are part of the envelope of HIV?

Well, one of these proteins, named gp 120, (a sugar-containing protein called a glycoprotein, of approximately 120,000 molecular weight), "recognizes" a protein on helper T-cells named CD4, and physically associates with it. The CD4 [Cluster of Differentiation Antigen No. 4] protein is a normal part of a helper (both Th1 and Th2) T-cell's membrane.

Thus, CD4 is a specific receptor for HIV. This virus however, can also infect other cells which include macrophages and certain other kinds of cells which can engulf substances through a process known as phagocytosis. As a consequence of the interaction with CD4 on helper T-cells, HIV specifically infects the very cells necessary to activate both B-cell and cytotoxic T-cell immune responses. Without helper T-cells, the body cannot make antibodies properly, nor can infected cells containing HIV (an intracellular pathogen) be properly eliminated. Consequently, the virus can: multiply, kill the helper T-cell in which it lives, infect adjacent helper T-cells, repeat the cycle, and on and on, until eventually there is a substantial loss of helper T-cells.

The fight between the virus and the immune system for supremacy is continuous. Our body responds to this onslaught through production of more T-cells, some of which mature to become helper T-cells. The virus eventually infects these targets and eliminates them, too. More T-cells are produced; these too become infected, and are killed by the virus. This fight may continue for up to ten years before the body eventually succumbs, apparently because of the inability to any-longer produce T-cells. This loss of helper T-cells finally results in the complete inability of our body to ward-off even the weakest of organisms (all kinds of bacteria and viruses other than HIV) which are normally not ever a problem to us. This acquired condition of immunodeficiency is called, AIDS.

REQIREMENTS OF THE NANOROBOT:

1. It should e very small so that the blood capillary flow is not affected.

2. It should not be affected by the WBC.

3. It should be capable of sensing the HIV infected WBC only and its action is restricted to the infected WBC only.

4. It should make its operations in the RNA to convert back to the original DNA of the WBC by suitably changing the bases like the adenine, guanine.

5. It should convert the infected WBC into the original WBC in a very faster manner.

6. It should be made of cheaper rates, so that the patient can afford it easily.

OPERATION:

The designed anti-HIV nanorobots are injected into the blood stream. These nanorobots continues the process of conversion in the bone marrow, blood and in the thymus glands where the concentration the WBC‘s are more. This process takes pace till the normal death of the patient.

ADVANTAGES:

  1. More than million people in this world are affected by this dreaded disease. Currently there is no permanent vaccine or medicine is available to cure the disease. The currently available drugs can increase the patient’s life to a few years only, so the invention of this nanorobot will make the patients to get rid of the disease.

2. As the nanorobot do not generate any harmful activities there is no side effect. It operates at specific site only.

3. The initial cost of development is only high but the manufacturing by batch processing reduces the cost.

DISADVANTAGES:

1.The nanorobot should be very accurate, otherwise harmful effects may occur.

2.The initial design cost is very high.

3.The design of this nanorobot is a very complicated one

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  • Raj Janorkar

    Anti-HIV Using Nanotech

    2 years ago