Chapter 14 - Carbon nanomaterials as pharmaceutic forms for sustained and controlled delivery systems

Abstract

There are several diseases with complex ethology that present diverse evolution depending on the characteristics of the patient. Use of actually available therapeutic technologies often results in limited benefits for the patients due to a variety of factors like the diverse characteristics of the ailments, drug resistance, and the limited performance of the pharmaceutical forms. The dynamic evolution of these illnesses, like cancer or diabetes, generates a necessity to develop new strategies for applying treatments. Nanomaterials such as polymeric nanoparticles, gold shells, and carbon nanomaterials (CNM) have been designed to present improved properties that can cover the therapeutic necessities in complex diseases. Since the beginning of the present century, CNM have been used as alternative pharmaceutical strategies for drug delivery (DD). CNM have been especially helpful in the design of systems of controlled and sustained DD. CNM present diverse morphology and structures and can be found as nanoparticles, fullerenes, graphene, nanotubes, and diamonds principally. Besides the intrinsic characteristics of these materials, CNM can be functionalized with immobilized biomolecules (as proteins) or magnetic nanoparticles to achieve a more tailored performance that covers the necessities for the treatment of each specific illness. The present document will review the basic properties of CNM and its potential to be used as carriers for controlled and programmed drug delivery systems.