intravenous injections of local anesthetics such as bupivacaine are a major cause of cardiac

blocks with a fatal outcome.30,31 Tricyclic antidepressants such as amitriptyline (one of the most

common drugs used in suicideS32) are among the most frequently ingested substances in self-

poisoning.33 COmmon clinical treatments in the case of anesthetic-induced toxicity include rapid

oxygenation, ventilation, seizure control, and cardiovascular support.34 To Eight drug overdose,

several methods have been explored such as the intravenous injection of sodium bicarbonate,35

the use of activated carbon,36 the use of lipid infusions,37 Or even the use of other drugs such as

amiodarone,38 inSUlin,39 Or propofol.40 All these methods have shown some interesting results but

an efficient and specific antidote scavenging the toxicity of the aforementioned antidepressant

and anesthetic drugs by reducing their bio-availability within the body still has to be designed.

 1.4 Nanoparticle Technology

 Living organisms are built of cells that are usually a few micrometers in size, and their

organelles are even much smaller, in the sub-micron size range. The recent development of

nanotechnologies that deal with nanometer-sized objects (nanoparticles) for instance in

electronics, cosmetics, or catalysis41,42 also opened the possibility to probe the cellular machinery

without introducing too much interference43 and to understand biological processes on the

nanoscale level.44 Recent developments of nanoparticulate systems include for instance protein

detection,45 tissue engineering,46 cancer therapy,47 and drug delivery.48 Because of the absence of

specific antidotes in the case of drug intoxication as mentioned in the previous paragraph, a

multidisciplinary effort is being made at the University of Florida (Particle Engineering Research

Center and Departments of Chemistry, Material Science, Chemical Engineering, and

Anesthesiology) to synthesize a series of novel nano-sized bioparticles that are able to move

freely in the blood stream even in the smallest capillaries (diameter ~ 5 pum) and that are able to