Commercializing Nano Implants—Real Human Clinical Evidence of Success in the Spine

The incorporation of nanotechnology into medicine (termed nanomedicine) has often been criticized for a lack of human clinical translation. While numerous studies have shown the ability of nanomaterials to improve tissue growth (such as bone, cartilage, nervous system tissue, etc.), fight infection, limit inflammation, and kill tumors in in vitro or animal studies, it has been largely speculated that few nanomaterials have been commercialized into real products helping human health. This talk will show for the first time human data in which spinal implants were modified to possess nanotextures and have been implanted into humans over the past 5 years. Impressively, out of approximately 14,000 patients, there have been no cases of implant failure including no cases on implant infection. Mechanistic studies have demonstrated that nanotextured implants not only mimic the natural roughness of bone itself but also possess altered surface energy to adsorb endogenous proteins known to promote osteoblast (bone forming cell) functions while inihibiting bacteria functions. Such results represent some of the only results available demonstrating the successful use of nanotextured spinal implants in humans and further demonstrate that bacteria infection can be stopped through the use of nanotextures alone, and not antibiotics which are causing the emergence of harmful antibiotic resistance bacteria.