Theranostic applications of multifunctional carbon nanomaterials

Abstract

Nanobiotechnology is one of the leading research areas in biomedical science, developing rapidly worldwide. Among various types of nanoparticles, carbon nanomaterials (CNMs) have attracted a great deal of attention from the scientific community, especially with respect to their prospective application in the field of disease diagnosis and therapy. The unique features of these nanomaterials, including favorable size, high surface area, and electrical, structural, optical, and chemical properties, have provided an excellent opportunity for their utilization in theranostic systems. Carbon nanotubes, carbon quantum dots, graphene, and fullerene are the most employed CNMs in biomedical fields. They have been considered safe and efficient for non‐invasive diagnostic techniques such as fluorescence imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, and biosensors. Various functionalized CNMs exhibit a great capacity to improve cell targeting of anticancer drugs. Due to their thermal properties, they have been extensively used in cancer photothermal and photodynamic therapy assisted by laser irradiation and CNMs. CNMs also can cross the blood‐brain barrier and have the potential to treat various brain disorders, for instance, neurodegenerative diseases, by removing amyloid fibrils. This review has summarized and emphasized on biomedical application of CNMs and their recent advances in diagnosis and therapy.

Nano‐Micron Combined Hydrogel Microspheres: Novel Answer for Minimal Invasive Biomedical Applications

“…They offer new opportunities for biomedical applications, such as drug/gene delivery, cancer therapy, and tissue engineering. [105][106][107] From a material structure and functional perspective, the surfaces of carbon nanotubes and graphene possess delocalized 𝜋 electrons that can efficiently load aromatic anticancer drugs through 𝜋-𝜋 stacking interactions. [108] When the surfaces of carbon nanomaterials are positively functionalized, negatively charged DNA/siRNA can bind to the modified carbon nanotubes/graphene through electrostatic interactions, facilitating intracellular transfection.…”

Spatially Confined Nanoreactors Designed for Biological Applications

“…Porous carbon/graphene refers to carbon nanomaterials with nanoscale pores on 2D and 3D basal planes and is usually prepared by the wet chemical method and template method. Porous graphene not only retains the excellent properties of graphene such as good stability and biocompatibility, [ 29 ] but also the presence of pores enhances the catalytic activity by providing abundant binding sites [ 30 ] compared to the original nonporous graphene surface. Moreover, the space limitation of porous carbon/graphene‐based nanoreactors could theoretically provide suitable reaction space to confine nanoparticles and even single‐atom (SA).…”

Carbon Nanostructures as promising Targeted Drug Delivery systems of Anticancer Agents

“…There is a growing interest in developing multifunctional CNS-based systems that simultaneously carry multiple drugs, diagnostic agents, and targeting moieties (Sajja et al, 2009). This approach could lead to more effective combination therapies and enable theragnostic applications (combined therapy and diagnostics) (Masoudi Asil et al, 2023;Y. Zhang et al, 2018).…”