Modification of Carbon Nanotubes as an Effective Solution for Cancer Therapy

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNT) as a new class of nano-materials hold great potential for various biomedical applications. Owing to their unusual properties, carbon nanotubes have been extensively employed in electronics, nanotechnology and optics, among others. In spite of the great potential of carbon nanotubes in various domains of biomedicine, ineffcient dispersion in aqueous solutions and biological activities in vivo are still disputable. One important and feasible route in a struggle to overcome these obstacles is modification of CNTs with organic compounds and polymers, which have been widely studied and play a crucial role in biological and biomedical fields, particularly in the cancer therapy. This review focuses on the breakthrough of the recently used methods to functionalize onto the surface of carbon nanotubes with multiple chemical species in order to produce anticancer drug delivery systems for biomedical applications.

Combining Carbon Nanotubes and Chitosan for the Vectorization of Methotrexate to Lung Cancer Cells

“…It is well know that the synthetic and purification procedures play key roles in determining the CNT features, with the possibility to modulate the morphological patterns (e.g., size and number of shells), the electric and magnetic responses, the number of defects and density of branches, and the surface chemical affinity [61,62]. Here, we employed a fixed-bed chemical vapor deposition method, allowing us to produce well defined MWCNT with a narrower size distribution (length in a range of 110–980 nm, average inner diameter of 0.7–1.5 nm, and outer diameter of 5–8 nm corresponding to 4–7 graphene shells; see Figure 1a [63]) compared to MWCNT prepared by different techniques, such as aerosol assisted chemical vapor deposition (length in the range 10–30 µm and average outer diameter of 5–25 nm, corresponding to 20–30 graphene walls [64]).…”

Recent trends in macromolecule-conjugated hybrid quantum dots for cancer theranostic applications

“…At the same time, the HQDs fluorescence served as a tool for monitoring the drug release and a versatile nanoscale scaffold for creating multifunctional nanoparticles for siRNA administration and imaging. 64 Compared to conventional siRNA delivery agents, it can increase gene silencing activity by 10 to 20 factors and decrease cytotoxicity by 5 to 6 folds. Moreover, HQDs naturally function as double imaging probes, enabling transfection-related real-time tracking and anatomical localization.…”

Carbon‐Based Nanomaterials for Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis: A Review

“…Polyethylene Glycol‐coated carbon nanotube‐ABT737 nanodrug (PEG‐CNT‐ABT737 nano‐drug) enhances mitochondrial targeting in lung cancer cells [149] . The major advantage of CNTs is easy to surface modification through covalent and non‐covalent interactions to improve biocompatibility and solubility [150] …”

“…[149] The major advantage of CNTs is easy to surface modification through covalent and non-covalent interactions to improve biocompatibility and solubility. [150]…”