Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
1100
700
Mean nanotube length (nm)
300
FIGURE 20.9
The relationship between cell survival and CNTs length
using photothermal therapy. This has shown that
nanotube lengths of 700 and 1100 nm are much more
desirable in killing tumor cells compared with the length
of 300 nm.
From
[57]
.
FA on the surfaces of CNTs
[34]
. Folate-bearing nanotubes having the size of 0.81 nm and a maxi-
mum absorbance at 980 nm were used for photothermal therapy of cancer
[59]
. The tumor cells were
exposed to 980 nm laser radiations, resulting in photothermal destruction of cancer cells both
in vitro
and
in vivo
.
20.4
CNTS FOR ORAL CANCER THERAPY
Oral cancer may originate in any of the tissues of the mouth and may be of varied histologic types:
l
teratoma (true neoplasms composed of multiple tissues foreign to the site from which they
originate),
l
adenocarcinoma (derived from a major or minor salivary gland),
l
lymphoma (from tonsillar or other lymphoid tissue), or
l
melanoma (from the pigment producing cells of the oral mucosa).
Oral cancer accounts for approximately 2% of all malignant tumors in the United States and
Europe, approximately 30-40% in the Indian subcontinent and more than 90% are squamous cell car-
cinomas (SCCs), originating in the tissues that line the mouth and lips.
CNT-based drug delivery holds great promise in the treatment of oral cancer. In a recent
in vivo
study
[6]
, killing of cancer cells using a drug-SWNT bioconjugate was evaluated and it was dem-
onstrated with superior efficacy than the nontargeted bioconjugates. Anticancer drug cisplatin and
epidermal growth factor (EGF) were attached to SWNTs to specifically target head and neck squa-
mous carcinoma cells (HNSCC). Initial
in vitro
imaging studies with HNSCC overexpressing EGF
