Abstract
Despite the current progresses of modern medicine, the resistance of malignant tumors to present medical treatments points to the necessity of developing new therapeutic approaches. In recent years, numerous studies have focused their attention on the promising use of nanomaterials, like iron oxide nanowires, zinc oxide or mesoporous silica nanoparticles, for cancer and metastasis treatment with the advantage of operating directly at the bio-molecular scale. Among them, carbon nanotubes emerged as valid candidates not only for drug delivery, but also as a valuable tool in cancer imaging and physical ablation. Nevertheless, deep investigations about carbon nanotubes’ potential bio-compatibility and cytotoxicity limits should be also critically addressed. In the present review, after introducing carbon nanotubes and their promising advantages and drawbacks for fighting cancer, we want to focus on the numerous and different ways in which they can assist to reach this goal. Specifically, we report on how they can be used not only for drug delivery purposes, but also as a powerful ally to develop effective contrast agents for tumors’ medical or photodynamic imaging, to perform direct physical ablation of metastasis, as well as gene therapy.
Highlights
Current cancer treatments mostly involve surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy.The purpose of chemotherapy and of radiation is to kill the tumor cells, as they are more susceptible to the actions of these methods
Considering semiconducting nanotubes, the lower their diameter, the higher will be the energy gap [6]. This allows the synthesis of Carbon NanoTubes (CNTs) with customized electrical properties depending on the application requirements, e.g., the distinct potentials required by different molecular redox reactions
The final hybrid, was tested in vitro and in vivo and showed better results in killing tumors cells, even at a dose much lower than free DOX. The authors ascribe these good results to three primary factors: the more precise tumor targeting due to the folic acid, the better ability of the CNTs to enter inside the cells with respect to the free DOX and the fact that the DOX release happens in a low pH environment, typical of tumors [141]
Summary
Current cancer treatments mostly involve surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. The possibility of functionalizing their surface with a wide group or bio/chemical species paves the way for numerous therapeutic and drug delivery applications [2,3,4]. For these reasons, they stand out within the newest approaches for cancer “theranostic” treatment, i.e. treatments that combine both the diagnosis and therapy in the same nanostructure. The goal of this paper is to give an overview of the potential impact the CNTs can have on the study and treatment of cancer.
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