Functionalized carbon nanotubes: biomedical applications

Figures & data

Table 1 Functionalized carbon nanotubes and reduced cytotoxic effects

Functional group or structure	Toxicological studies	Application	Target site	Reference
Acid-oxidized SWCNTs	Apoptosis studies showed no apparent cell toxicity	Intracellular protein transporters	Mammalian cells	Kam and Dai^Citation69
Acid-treated, water-soluble SWCNTs	No changes in cell viability or structure in lysosomes and cytoplasm		Human monocyte– derived macrophage cells	Porter et al^Citation88
Purified COOH–SWCNTs	No cytotoxicity	Pharmacological applications	Cultured mammalian cells	Wang et al^Citation72
Oxidized ultrashort SWCNTs	Showed no cytotoxic effects	Intracellular delivery of oligonucleotide molecules	Human macrophages	Crinelli et al^Citation91
Amine-terminated CNTs	Cross cellular membrane without cytotoxicity	Delivery of amino acids peptides, nucleic acid, or drugs		Pantarotto et al^Citation35,Citation68 Singh et al^Citation106 Liu et al^Citation99
SWCNT–PL–PEG	Gene silencing with no apparent cytotoxic effects	SH–small interferingRNA delivery	Human T cells	Liu et al^Citation2
SWCNT–PEG–drug	Decreased reactive oxygen species– mediated toxicological response and exhibited less cytotoxicity	Drug delivery	Neuronal PC12 cells	Zhang et al^Citation10
SWCNT–PEG–cisplatin/ doxorubicin	Remarkable reduction of cytotoxicity	Drug-delivery and imaging tool	Human cancer cells/mice	Bottini et al^Citation118 Bhirde et al^Citation16
SWCNT–PEG–mAb (αvβ3)	Without harming adjacent normal cells	Cancer-cell targeting	αvβ3-positive U87MG cells	Portney et al^Citation119
SWCNT–PEG	Revealed no evidence of toxicity over 4 months		Mice	Schipper et al^Citation70
MWNT–CS–(PC)	Chitosan and PC reduced the cytotoxic effects on normal cells with specific photo-induced toxicity towards malignant cells	Photothermal therapy	MCF-7, HepG2 and L-O2 cell lines	Liao and Zhang^Citation120
Polyoxylethylene sorbitan monooleate (PS80) CNTs	Suppressed cytotoxicity		Human lung mesothelium cells (MSTO-211-H)	Wick et al^Citation60
HMDA–SWCNTs; PDDA chloride–SWCNTs	Negligible cytotoxic effects	Intracellular delivery of negatively charged biomolecules	Rat heart cells	Krajcik et al^Citation128
SWCNTs with human serum proteins	Blood proteins altered SWCNT cellular interaction pathways and reduced cytotoxicity	Biological applications	Human acute monocytic leukemia cell lines and human umbilical vein endothelial cells	Ge et al^Citation13
BSA-dispersed SWCNTs	No acute deleterious cellular effects		Human mesenchymal stem cells and HeLa cells	Holt et al^Citation103
Albumin–SWCNTs	Induced cyclooxygenase-2 and modulating toxicity effects of SWCNTs		RAW 264.7 macrophage cell lines	Dutta et al^Citation104
Streptavidin–CNT– protein conjugates	No cytotoxic effects on adjacent cells	Specific drug delivery	Cancer cells	Balavoine et al^Citation100
DNA-encased MWCNTs	Does not exert cytotoxic effect on lymphocytes	Selective thermal ablation of malignant tissue in vivo	In vivo	Ghosh et al^Citation112
Lectin-functionalized CNTs	Increase in cell viability without signs of apoptosis	Nanovaccine fabrication	J774A macrophage (MOs) cell line	Montes- Fonseca et al^Citation34
Fluorescent–CNT-FITC/ biotin conjugates	Reduced cytotoxicity	Delivery systems	HL60 cells	Bianco et al^Citation139
Cationic fCNTs	Lowers cytotoxicity in vitro	Delivery of drugs and biomolecules	CHO, 3T3 fibroblast, Jurkat, HL60 cell lines	Shi Kam et al^Citation140

Abbrevations: CNTs, carbon nanotubes; fCNTs functionalized carbon nanotubes; SWCNTs, single-walled carbon nanotubes; PL, phospholipid; PEG, poly(ethylene glycol); mAb, monoclonal antibody; MWCNTs, multiwalled carbon nanotubes; CS, chitosan; PC, phycocyanin; CTAB, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide; HMDA, hexamethylenediamine; PDDA, polydiallyldimethylammonium; BSA, bovine serum albumin.

Figure 1 Overview of functionalization of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) using different molecules and their biomedical applications.

Abbreviations: SWCNT, single-walled carbon nanotube; siRNA, small interfering RNA; PEG, polyethylene glycol.

Figure 2 π–π stacking interaction between single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) and protein molecules.

Figure 3 DNA wrap around single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) to form tight helices, forming noncovalent conjugates with CNTs.

Figure 4 Functionalization of multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) with chitosan (CS) conjugated to phycocyanin (PC) (photodynamic therapy [PDT] and photothermal therapy [PTT] agent) for PDT and PTT cancer therapy.

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