Carbon nanomaterials as new tools for immunotherapeutic applications

Abstract

Carbon-based nanomaterials, including carbon nanotubes and graphene, have gained great attention in the scientific community due to their unique physico-chemical properties, which could be also promising in many biomedical-related fields. In particular, their low cytotoxicity, achieved when properly functionalized, along with the possibility to link multiple bioactive molecules, realistically allows envisaging their potential use as a therapeutic platform. In this context, the immune system and immune responses play an important role in our organism, as they are involved either directly or indirectly in many diseases. Therefore, the possibility to prevent or block a disease by controlling and/or modulating the immune responses has become an important task in nanomedicine. In this feature article the advantages of using carbon-based materials in immunotherapy are presented. Important goals achieved using carbon nanotubes and graphene are described, highlighting the promising use of these nanomaterials in cancer treatment, imaging and vaccine development. The capacity of functionalized carbon nanotubes to modulate the immune responses is also discussed, highlighting the current state of the art and the future developments on this subject.

Carbon nanohorns allow acceleration of osteoblast differentiationviamacrophage activation

“…1 Carbon nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene and carbon nanohorns (CNHs), have been studied for biomedical applications because of their unique characteristics. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Carbon nanomaterials are promising candidates for bone tissue engineering applications due to their superior cytocompatible, mechanical and electrical properties. [12][13][14][15][16][17][18] Some years ago, we initiated to explore study the applications of carbon nanomaterials for bone tissue regeneration.…”

Nanocomposite Polymer Scaffolds Responding under External Stimuli for Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering Applications

“…However, one first main issue encountered with these carbon‐based materials is their long dimensions (several tens of microns scale length) which may display similar toxicity to asbestos and thus requires procedures to shorten their dimensions. To solve this problem, CNTs have been treated in a strong oxidizing media under ultrasound to decrease their length and thus their length/diameter ratio . Furthermore, in the last decade, graphene has emerged as an exciting new material.…”

Nanomaterials, Autophagy, and Lupus Disease

“…Also very promising is the presentation of biologically active peptides on inert surfaces, such as carbon nanomaterials, metals, and metal‐oxide‐based nanomaterials . In particular, carbon nanomaterials, including carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene, have attracted great attention for their unique physicochemical properties that can be exploited in many biomedical areas.…”

“…The advantage of this kind of nanomaterial stems from its immunological inertness and, in particular, lack of immunogenicity . These pioneering findings prompted many research groups to further explore CNTs for immunotherapeutic applications . In the field of immunomodulation, a few studies have reported the use of CNTs to modulate immune responses.…”