Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER
20
Carbon Nanotubes in Cancer
Therapy and Drug Delivery
A. Elhissi,
1
W. Ahmed,
2
V.R. Dhanak,
3
and K. Subramani
4
1
Nanomedicine and Nanoengineering Research Group, Institute of Nanotechnology and Bioengineering,
School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK
2
Nanomedicine and Nanoengineering Research Group, Institute of Nanotechnology and Bioengineering, School of
Computing, Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK
3
Department of Physics, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
4
Department of Orthodontics, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
CONTENTS
20.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................347
20.2 Cellular Uptake of CNTs ...............................................................................................................349
20.3 CNTs as Carriers for Drug, Gene, and Protein .................................................................................350
20.3.1 CNTs as Carriers of Anticancer Molecules............................................................... 350
20.3.2 CNTs as Carriers of Immunoactive Compounds, Proteins, and Genetic Materials ........ 353
20.3.3 CNTs as Carriers for Antimicrobial Molecules.......................................................... 357
20.3.4 Photothermal Therapy of Cancer Using CNTs.......................................................... 357
20.4 CNTs for Oral Cancer Therapy........................................................................................................358
20.5 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................359
References ........................................................................................................................................... 360
20.1
INTRODUCTION
The aim of developing drug delivery systems is to enhance the therapeutic effect or reduce the toxic-
ity of therapeutically active materials. This is conventionally achieved using spherical-shaped vesicle
nanocarriers such as liposomes. Alternatively, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are essentially cylindrical
molecules made entirely of carbon atoms and can be used as nanocarriers. CNTs can be considered
as made from graphene sheets rolled into a seamless cylinder that can be open ended or capped, having
a high aspect ratio with diameters as small as 1 nm and length of several micrometers. CNTs made
from a single graphene sheet results in single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) while several graphene
sheets make up multi walled nanotubes (MWNTs). Ever since their discovery in 1991 by Iijima (
[1]
),
