Level of Knowledge of the Academic Medical Community about Nanotechnology-Based Strategies Developed to Manage Infectious Diseases: A Short Study

Nanotechnology is an interdisciplinary research field that integrates chemistry, engineering, biology, and medicine. Several useful nanotechnological applications have been identified in cancer biology, including technologies for the early detection of tumors and cancer biomarkers, and the development of treatment approaches that are impossible to achieve using conventional technologies as demonstrated during the current COVID-19 pandemic, nanotechnology can play a major role in global health. From better screening and diagnostics to therapeutics and vaccines, as well as health monitoring devices, nanotechnology-enabled approaches have the potential of making a tangible impact in the field of infectious diseases. In the area of prevention and treatment of infection, it has been proposed that materials not only be used by professionals (such as during infection treatment by clinicians in hospitals) but also by every person (such as nanoparticles in paints for use at home or over the counter nanodrugs). For this reason, future work must rely on collaboration among engineers, clinicians, and environmental scientists (and those from other fields as well) to fully characterize such nanomaterials in terms of chemistry, impurities, and toxicity. With the establishment of safe usage guidelines, nanomaterials can be safely used for the important and growing area of antimicrobial material design. We should be excited (not frightened) about what the future holds for nanotechnology in these collaborative anti-infection efforts. Despite being a rapidly expanded field of research, the advances of Nanotechnology continue to be largely unknown. Specifically referring to infectious diseases, it would be interesting to explore the level of knowledge of the academic medical community about the contribution of this multidisciplinary science to their prevention and control, which constitutes the main objective of this study.