Nanotechnology in the Diagnosis of Allergic Airway Diseases

The prevalence and burden of allergic airway diseases like asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic tonsillitis, allergic rhinitis, and chronic rhinosinusitis are continuously rising worldwide and have the biggest public health burden. Further, these diseases are also directly or indirectly linked to noncommunicable diseases like cardiovascular diseases, obesity, and autoimmune diseases that lead to increased morbidity and expenditures. Nanotechnology, a rapidly growing sector with continually developing revolutionary technologies, offers new hope to clinicians for diagnosis of allergic airway diseases. It provides advancements in imaging, early detection, and diagnosis at the cellular level by providing new as well as improving existing clinically relevant technologies. It also helps in reducing the problems of toxicity, time-consuming, less accurate, and precise and off-target effects associated with the conventional diagnostic method. For example, with the help of nanotechnology and cell tracking agents, specific detection of allergic airway diseases with CT scan and MRI is now possible. Nanotechnology has improved breathalyzers’ ability to detect nitric oxide (NO), a biomarker used to diagnose asthma. Spirometry in conjunction with functionalized nanoparticles may produce a synergy of state-of-the-art clinical imaging techniques and a quantifiable test for the early to late identification of allergic disease. Despite all the ongoing studies and progress in developing numerous new targeted agents, more research is still needed to determine the early diagnosis of allergic airway diseases and lead to more futuristic studies. In the present chapter, we will highlight the burden of allergic airway diseases on public health and disadvantages of conventional diagnostic method with great attention on the role of the nanotechnology, i.e., nanoparticles, quantum dots, gold nanoparticles, carbon tubes, nanocrystals, and hydrogel in the diagnosis of allergic airway diseases. We also discuss how the nano technology revolutionizes the field of respiratory medicine by helping in modifying pointing, improve biosensors resolution and sensitivity of existing imaging modalities.