Nanomaterials as antidotal therapy for drug poisoning

Drug poisoning, established as a result of accidental or intentional overdosing, is a serious health problem. However, for many life-threatening situations, specific antidotes are not available and treatment is mainly based on emptying the stomach, administering activated charcoal or other general actions of intoxication support. While there has been a remarkable effort to improve drug delivery methods using nanotechnology, a new approach displays that this could work the other way around as well, and that porous nanoparticles can soak up drug molecules in the body like a sponge. To be effective, the nanoantidots must remain in the blood long enough to sequester the toxic components and/or their metabolites, and the toxin bound complex must also remain stable until it is removed from the bloodstream. Here, we discuss the main beliefs that govern the use of nanocarriers in biodetoxification and analysis the pharmacological performance of a number of different approaches.