Abstract
After hydrogen and oxygen, carbon is the third most abundant component present in the cosmos with excellent characteristic features of binding to itself and nearly all elements. Since ancient times, carbon-based materials such as graphite, charcoal, and carbon black have been utilized for writing and drawing materials. As these materials possess excellent chemical, mechanical, electrical, and thermal features, they have been readily engineered into carbon-based nanomaterials (CNMs) such as carbon nanotubes, graphene oxide, graphene quantum dots, nanodiamonds, fullerenes, carbon nano-onions, and so forth. These materials are now widely explored in biomedical applications. Thus, the emergence of CNMs has opened up a gateway for the detection, delivery, and treatment of a multitude of diseases. They are being actively researched for applications within tissue engineering, as vaccine vectors, and for the delivery of therapeutics to the immune system. This review focuses on the recent advances in various types of CNMs, their fabrication techniques, and their application in the delivery of therapeutics both in vitro and in vivo. The review also focuses on the toxicity concern of the CNMs and the possible remedies to tackle the toxicity issues. Concluding remarks emphasize all the CNMs discussed in the review over their possible biomedical applications, while the future perspectives section discusses the approaches to bring CNMs into the mainstream of clinical trials and their therapeutic applications.
Highlights
Nanotechnology has offered to mankind various nano-enabled products or nanosystems, currently serving various biomedical applications
We have examined various Carbon-based nanomaterials (CNMs) employed for the treatment of different dreadful ailments and discussed the toxicity concerns along with their possible remedial approaches
Low cytotoxicity was observed on the PC-12 cell line by the multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)
Summary
Nanotechnology has offered to mankind various nano-enabled products or nanosystems, currently serving various biomedical applications. Carbon-based nanomaterials (CNMs) could be considered as such a class of nanosystems, which have been explored for the delivery of therapeutics, biosensing, and bioimaging [2]. Of late, they have been pragmatic in applications such as regenerative medicine [3], cancer therapy, and theranostics [4] (Figure 1). Carbon nanomaterials possess specific properties such as high surface area, excellent mechanical and electrical properties that promote their application in the therapeutic and diagnostic fields. A few of the advantages of carbon nanomaterials are summarized as follows, and Table 1 gives a brief overview of different CNMs discussed in this review with their benefits and limitations Their supramolecular π–π stacking attribute allows them to adsorb a high amount of drug. Unique electronic and structural properties, including the ability to accept electrons reversibly, a high surface-area to volume ratio, and broad absorption bands
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