Anti-Cancer Cytotoxic Effects of Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

Recent research has opened new alternatives to traditional chemotherapy treatments using nanomaterials as cytotoxic agents. Anti-cancer nanomedicines do not require specific target sites on key proteins or genes to kill cancer cells and have radically different mechanisms to interact with the living matter. Among 1D nanomaterials, multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) have the intrinsic ability to bind tubulin and interfere with microtubule dynamics, mimicking the effect of traditional cytotoxic microtubule-binding agents such as paclitaxel (taxol®). Here, we review the cytotoxic properties of MWCNTs and show a direct pro-apoptotic effect of these nanomaterials in vitro in different cancer cell lines and tumor cells obtained from surgical specimens. Understanding the bio-synthetic relationship between MWCNTs and microtubules could serve to improve these nanomaterials to be used as broad spectrum antineoplastic agents in combination to traditional microtubule-binding treatments, thus avoiding drug resistance mechanisms in cancer cells.

Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes Inhibit Tumor Progression in a Mouse Model

“…MWCNT‐ cell loading was performed in vitro, with permissive dosages of MWCNTs (20 μg mL −1 ) for 48 h before transplantation. These dosages and incubation times are sufficient to allow MWCNTs translocation into the cells (Figure , Figure S1, Supporting Information), producing no detectable lethality ex vivo (Figure S2, Supporting Information). To ensure that control tumors developed under virtually identical conditions, littermates were simultaneously transplanted with untreated melanoma cells.…”

“…CNT surface functionalization also makes possible to enhance blood circulation times, improving biodistribution and translocation into tumors . Recently, multi­walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) have also been claimed to display intrinsic anti‐proliferative, anti‐migratory, and cytotoxic effects in vitro, resulting of the physicochemical characteristics and morphology of these nanomaterials, conferring MWCNTs remarkable biomimetic properties that prompt their association with some of the naturally existing intracellular nanofilaments such as actin or microtubules that can be exploited to defeat cancer. These mechanical effects in addition to the well‐known oxidative stress that MWCNT trigger in cells can be exploited to defeat cancer.…”

Effect of Size, Shape, and Composition on the Interaction of Different Nanomaterials with HeLa Cells

“…Here, we investigate the effect of MWCNTs on HeLa cells incubated with 50 μg/ml. , causing detectable morphological changes and alterations in the biomechanics of HeLa cells which results in slower migration rates [15,19], proliferative blockage, and, depending on the dose/exposure time, genomic instability and cytotoxic effects (Figure 1(d)) [7,[42][43][44]. In this study, HeLa cells exposed to nanotubes display an elongated morphology (Figure 1(c)), abnormal mitotic figures (Figure 1(d)), and aberrant cell cycles (Figure 1(e)) where we can see an increased S and/or G2 phases, depending on the incubation dose/times.…”

“…This has offered us a broad critical view on the effects produced by many of these compounds in different cellular systems. We now know that the same nanomaterial can produce different cytotoxic effects in different cells, depending on the nature and origin of the cell [7]. For example, macrophages generally suffer more cumulative or degradative effects-i.e., reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation-than other cells for the same material at the same dose due to their high avidity for capturing nanomaterials [8][9][10][11][12][13].…”

“…For example, macrophages generally suffer more cumulative or degradative effects-i.e., reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation-than other cells for the same material at the same dose due to their high avidity for capturing nanomaterials [8][9][10][11][12][13]. On the contrary, malignant melanoma or glioblastoma multiforme cells have great resistance to cytotoxicity for most nanomaterials [7,14,15]. Also, some cells have a special idiosyncrasy that makes them tolerant to certain types of nanomaterials, such as neurons.…”