BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS III: DELIVERY OF IMMUNOSTIMULANTS AND VACCINES - Carbon Nanotubes: From Bench Chemistry to Promising Biomedical Applications - page 98

On the whole, these preliminary indings pave the way for future in vivo
experiments using animal models of disease or vaccination protocols to test
the therapeutic or adjuvant potential of such complexes. Moreover, further
studies will need to address whether serum proteins can alter the surface
potential of CNTs, their size, the stability of complexes and the formation of
aggregates.
Figure 4.9 Neutrophil cell numbers in BALF collected 24 hours after a single
intranasal exposure of mice to buffer (Hank's balanced salt solution [HBSS], open
bars) and low, medium and high doses of SWCNTs (light gray bars), MWCNTs (dark
gray bars) and ufCBPs (black bars). Mean values and SD for groups of eight mice are
shown. The asterisk denotes a statistically signiicant difference compared with the
HBSS group. Reproduced from Nygaard et al. 29 with permission.
4.5 CONCLUSIONS
CNTs can serve as vaccine delivery and adjuvant vehicles by virtue of their
nanoparticulate nature. The hydrophobic nature of CNTs contributes to
vaccine delivery capability by facilitating the interaction of CNTs with antigens
or immunostimulatory molecules and uptake of the vaccine particles by
immunocompetent cells.
Although the application of CNTs in the ield of vaccines is still at its early
stage, CNTs have shown the ability to provide a platform for the attachment of
adjuvants and antigens. In any case, it is important to evaluate in detail each
system and application, in order to identify eventual toxicity, immunogenicity,
stability, biocompatibility and costs for a competitive scale-up of these
composites. Although extremely challenging, further research should be