article · Nanotechnology Reviews
Rapid industrial growth, urbanisation, and population increases have created severe global waste challenges. At the same time, nanotechnology is advancing healthcare through tools for disease detection and treatment, such as biosensors, imaging modalities, drug delivery, and vaccinations. Conventional nanomaterials often face limitations due to toxicity concerns. Transforming different types of waste into recycled nanomaterials offers a sustainable approach that supports circular economy models while reducing environmental harm. These recycled nanomaterials provide safer alternatives with significant capabilities across diagnostic and therapeutic fields. They demonstrate functional promise as antimicrobial, anticancer, and antioxidant agents, as well as components for vaccines and precision medicine. Ongoing developments in the design, synthesis, and characterisation of waste-derived nanomaterials are broadening their utility, presenting a viable dual solution for waste management and medical innovation.
Accumulating global waste poses severe environmental risks, whilst advanced medical technologies face constraints from toxic nanomaterials. Converting waste into functional nanomaterials simultaneously addresses waste management and provides safer tools for disease diagnosis and therapy. This approach advances circular economy strategies by turning discarded materials into valuable resources for healthcare, ultimately supporting sustainable development and public health initiatives.
The identified applications include biosensors, imaging systems, vaccines, and targeted nanodrugs for antimicrobial or anticancer treatments, aimed at medical diagnostics and pharmaceutical developers. Because the underlying evidence is drawn from a broad review of existing developments rather than specific product trials, the technological readiness remains at an early-stage research phase, requiring significant laboratory and translational validation before commercial use.
AI-generated from the published abstract. Always read the original work before citing.
Abstract Global overpopulation, industrial expansion, and urbanization have generated massive amounts of wastes. This is considered as a significant worldwide challenge that requires an urgent solution. Additionally, remarkable advances in the field of biomedicine have impacted the entire spectrum of healthcare and medicine. This has paved the way for further refining of the outcomes of biomedical strategies toward early detection and treatment of different diseases. Various nanomaterials (NMs) have been dedicated to different biomedical applications including drug delivery, vaccinations, imaging modalities, and biosensors. However, toxicity is still the main factor restricting their use. NMs recycled from different types of wastes present a pioneering approach to not only avoid hazardous effects on the environment, but to also implement circular economy practices, which are crucial to attain sustainable growth. Moreover, recycled NMs have been utilized as a safe, yet revolutionary alternative with outstanding potential for many biomedical applications. This review focuses on waste recycled NMs, their synthesis, properties, and their potential for multiple biomedical applications with special emphasis on their role in the early detection and control of multiple diseases. Their pivotal therapeutic actions as antimicrobial, anticancer, antioxidant nanodrugs, and vaccines will also be outlined. The ongoing advancements in the design of recycled NMs are expanding their diagnostic and therapeutic roles for diverse biomedical applications in the era of precision medicine.
This page summarises published work. The authoritative version sits with the publisher.
DOI: 10.1515/ntrev-2021-0099
Is something wrong with this record? Report it or request removal.
Discussion
Have you built on this work, tried to replicate it, or seen it applied in practice? Share what you know. Verified researchers and MARATTO™ domain experts can open a discussion, and any member can reply. Contributions are reviewed before they appear.
No discussion yet. Open the first thread.
New to MARATTO™? Create a free account.
