NANOTUBES A NEWER APPROACH IN CANCER THERAPY: AN OVERVIEW

Interfacing carbon nanotubes with biological systems could lead to significant applications in various disease diagnoses. This article reviews the current trends in biological functionalization of carbon nanotubes and their potential applications for cancer diagnostics and treatment.

NANOTUBES A NEWER APPROACH IN CANCER THERAPY: AN OVERVIEW

Mishra, Lalit ^1*; Dwivedi, Sumeet²; Pandey, Deepak³; Dwivedi, Abhishek ⁴and Tomar, Singh, Gajendra¹   

1, Smriti College of Pharmaceutical Education, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

2, Chordia Institute of Pharmaceutical Education, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

3, Pentagon Labs, Dewas, Madhya Pradesh

4, NRI Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India

ABSTRACT

A nanotube is a long cylinder whose diameter is just a few nanometers. Often, nanotubes are made of carbon. The carbon nanotube's structure can be thought of as a sheet of graphite which has been rolled into a cylinder. Nanotubes are defined not only by length and diameter, but also by chirality or "twist." A nanotube can also contain multiple cylinders of different diameters nested inside one another. This type is called a multi-wall nanotube (MWNT). A nanotube with just one cylinder is referred to as a single-wall nanotube (SWNT). Other varieties of nanotubes include ropes, bundles and arrays. The nanotube's structure is the key to determining its other properties, such as elasticity, mechanical strength, electrical conductance and thermal conductivity. Over the past two years, researchers have demonstrated repeatedly that certain types of carbon nanotubes are among the most effective materials known for transporting proteins, genes, and drug molecules across the cell membrane. Now, an attempt to better understand this process has found that virtually any type of carbon nanotube can enter a wide variety of cell types. Moreover, it appears carbon nanotubes enter cells using more than one mechanism. Nanotubes have many unique properties such as high surface area, hollow cavities, and excellent mechanical and electrical properties. Interfacing carbon nanotubes with biological systems could lead to significant applications in various disease diagnoses. Significant progress in interfacing carbon nanotubes with biological materials has been made in key areas such as aqueous solubility, chemical and biological functionalization for biocompatibility and specificity, and electronic sensing of proteins. In addition, the bioconjugated nanotubes combined with the sensitive nanotube-based electronic devices would enable sensitive biosensors toward medical diagnostics. Furthermore, recent findings of improved cell membrane permeability for carbon nanotubes would also expand medical applications to therapeutics using carbon nanotubes as carriers in gene delivery systems. This article reviews the current trends in biological functionalization of carbon nanotubes and their potential applications for cancer diagnostics. The present work complies the review on carbon nanotubes and its efficacy in treatment of cancer and also reports the mechanism and properties. 

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