scholarly journals Carbon Nanotubes in Cancer Therapy and Drug Delivery

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdelbary M. A. Elhissi ◽  
Waqar Ahmed ◽  
Israr Ul Hassan ◽  
Vinod. R. Dhanak ◽  
Antony D'Emanuele

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been introduced recently as a novel carrier system for both small and large therapeutic molecules. CNTs can be functionalized (i.e., surface engineered) with certain functional groups in order to manipulate their physical or biological properties. In addition to the ability of CNTs to act as carriers for a wide range of therapeutic molecules, their large surface area and possibility to manipulate their surfaces and physical dimensions have been exploited for use in the photothermal destruction of cancer cells. This paper paper will discuss the therapeutic applications of CNTs with a major focus on their applications for the treatment of cancer.

Cancers ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 685 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cormac McCarthy ◽  
Nadishka Jayawardena ◽  
Laura N. Burga ◽  
Mihnea Bostina

Oncolytic viruses (OVs) form a group of novel anticancer therapeutic agents which selectively infect and lyse cancer cells. Members of several viral families, including Picornaviridae, have been shown to have anticancer activity. Picornaviruses are small icosahedral non-enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA viruses infecting a wide range of hosts. They possess several advantages for development for cancer therapy: Their genomes do not integrate into host chromosomes, do not encode oncogenes, and are easily manipulated as cDNA. This review focuses on the picornaviruses investigated for anticancer potential and the mechanisms that underpin this specificity.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Wang ◽  
Xusha Zhou ◽  
Weixuan Zou ◽  
Yinglin Wu ◽  
Jing Zhao ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Exosomes are small, cellular membrane-derived vesicles with a diameter of 50-150 nm. Exosomes are considered ideal drug delivery systems with a wide range of applications in various diseases, including cancer. However, nonspecific delivery of therapeutic agents by exosomes in vivo remains challenging. H uman epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is an epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase, and its overexpression is usually associated with cell survival and tumor progression in various cancers. In this study, we aim to develop novel exosomes with dual HER2-targeting ability as a nanoparticle delivery vehicle to enhance antitumor efficacy in vivo . Results: Here, we report the generation of two kinds of exosomes carrying miRNAs designed to block HER2 synthesis and consequently kill tumor cells. 293-miR-HER2 exosomes package and deliver designed miRNAs to cells to block HER2 synthesis. These exosomes kill cancer cells dependent on HER2 for survival but do not affect cells that lack HER2 or that are engineered to express HER2 but are not dependent on it for survival. In contrast, 293-miR-XS-HER2 exosomes carry an additional peptide, which enables them to adhere to HER2 on the surface of cancer cells. Consequently, these exosomes preferentially enter and kill cells with surface expression of HER2. 293-miR-XS-HER2 exosomes are significantly more effective than the 293-miR-HER2 exosomes in shrinking HER2-positive tumors implanted in mice. Conclusions: Collectively, as novel antitumor drug delivery vehicles, HER2 dual-targeting exosomes exhibit increased target-specific delivery efficiency and can be further utilized to develop new nanoparticle-based targeted therapies.


Marine Drugs ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (12) ◽  
pp. 654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Isabel Barbosa ◽  
Ana Joyce Coutinho ◽  
Sofia A. Costa Lima ◽  
Salette Reis

The use of marine-origin polysaccharides has increased in recent research because they are abundant, cheap, biocompatible, and biodegradable. These features motivate their application in nanotechnology as drug delivery systems; in tissue engineering, cancer therapy, or wound dressing; in biosensors; and even water treatment. Given the physicochemical and bioactive properties of fucoidan and chitosan, a wide range of nanostructures has been developed with these polysaccharides per se and in combination. This review provides an outline of these marine polysaccharides, including their sources, chemical structure, biological properties, and nanomedicine applications; their combination as nanoparticles with descriptions of the most commonly used production methods; and their physicochemical and biological properties applied to the design of nanoparticles to deliver several classes of compounds. A final section gives a brief overview of some biomedical applications of fucoidan and chitosan for tissue engineering and wound healing.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Zarghami Dehaghani ◽  
Farrokh Yousefi ◽  
Farzad Seidi ◽  
Babak Bagheri ◽  
Amin Hamed Mashhadzadeh ◽  
...  

AbstractThe use of carbon nanotubes as anticancer drug delivery cargo systems is a promising modality as they are able to perforate cellular membranes and transport the carried therapeutic molecules into the cellular components. Our work describes the encapsulation process of a common anticancer drug, Isatin (1H-indole-2,3-dione) as a guest molecule, in a capped single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) host with chirality of (10,10). The encapsulation process was modelled, considering an aqueous solution, by a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation under a canonical NVT ensemble. The interactions between the atoms of Isatin were obtained from the DREIDING force filed. The storage capacity of the capped SWCNT host was evaluated to quantify its capacity to host multiple Isatin molecules. Our results show that the Isatin can be readily trapped inside the volume cavity of the capped SWCNT and it remained stable, as featured by a reduction in the van der Waals forces between Isatin guest and the SWCNT host (at approximately − 30 kcal mol−1) at the end of the MD simulation (15 ns). Moreover, the free energy of encapsulation was found to be − 34 kcal mol−1 suggesting that the Isatin insertion procedure into the SWCNT occurred spontaneously. As calculated, a capped SWCNT (10,10) with a length of 30 Å, was able to host eleven (11) molecules of Isatin, that all remained steadily encapsulated inside the SWCNT volume cavity, showing a potential for the use of carbon nanotubes as drug delivery cargo systems.


Pharmaceutics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1413
Author(s):  
Anne Yagolovich ◽  
Andrey Kuskov ◽  
Pavel Kulikov ◽  
Leily Kurbanova ◽  
Dmitry Bagrov ◽  
...  

Nanoparticles based on the biocompatible amphiphilic poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) (Amph-PVP) derivatives are promising for drug delivery. Amph-PVPs self-aggregate in aqueous solutions with the formation of micellar nanoscaled structures. Amph-PVP nanoparticles are able to immobilize therapeutic molecules under mild conditions. As is well known, many efforts have been made to exploit the DR5-dependent apoptosis induction for cancer treatment. The aim of the study was to fabricate Amph-PVP-based nanoparticles covalently conjugated with antitumor DR5-specific TRAIL (Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand) variant DR5-B and to evaluate their in vitro cytotoxicity in 3D tumor spheroids. The Amph-PVP nanoparticles were obtained from a 1:1 mixture of unmodified and maleimide-modified polymeric chains, while DR5-B protein was modified by cysteine residue at the N-end for covalent conjugation with Amph-PVP. The nanoparticles were found to enhance cytotoxicity effects compared to those of free DR5-B in both 2D (monolayer culture) and 3D (tumor spheroids) in vitro models. The cytotoxicity of the nanoparticles was investigated in human cell lines, namely breast adenocarcinoma MCF-7 and colorectal carcinomas HCT116 and HT29. Notably, DR5-B conjugation with Amph-PVP nanoparticles sensitized resistant multicellular tumor spheroids from MCF-7 and HT29 cells. Taking into account the nanoparticles loading ability with a wide range of low-molecular-weight antitumor chemotherapeutics into hydrophobic core and feasibility of conjugation with hydrophilic therapeutic molecules by click chemistry, we suggest further development to obtain a versatile system for targeted drug delivery into tumor cells.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (16) ◽  
pp. 2205-2231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Cirillo ◽  
Claudia Peitzsch ◽  
Orazio Vittorio ◽  
Manuela Curcio ◽  
Annafranca Farfalla ◽  
...  

The development of hybrid materials, which combine inorganic with organic materials, is receiving increasing attention by researchers. As a consequence of carbon nanostructures high chemical versatility, they exhibit enormous potential for new highly engineered multifunctional nanotherapeutic agents for cancer therapy. Whereas many groups are working on drug delivery systems for chemotherapy, the use of carbon nanohybrids for radiotherapy is rarely applied. Thus, nanotechnology offers a wide range of solutions to overcome the current obstacles of conventional chemo- and/or radiotherapies. Within this review, the structure and properties of carbon nanostructures (carbon nanotubes, nanographene oxide) functionalized preferentially with different types of polymers (synthetic, natural) are discussed. In short, synthesis approaches, toxicity investigations and anticancer efficacy of different carbon nanohybrids are described.


Author(s):  
Pradeep Kumar S ◽  
Prathibha D ◽  
Gowri Shankar N L ◽  
Parthibarajan R ◽  
Mastyagiri L ◽  
...  

Carbon nanotubes, which are elongated fullerenes, resemble graphite sheets wrapped into cylinders with a high length-to-width ratio (few nm in diameter and up to 1 mm in length). Carbon nanotubes are molecular-scale tubes of graphitic carbon with outstanding properties. Carbon nanotubes have drawn great interest and attraction in the field of novel drug delivery system. Nanomedicines can target, diagnose, monitor and treat cancerous cell also. The small nanoscale dimension and astonishing properties make them a distinctive carrier with a wide range of promising applications. These cylindrical carbon molecules have novel properties that make them potentially useful in many applications in nanotechnology. The various nano-size carrier systems are available for biotechnological applications including the drug delivery. Carbon nanotubes are typically used for bioactive delivery due to their some unique outstanding properties. Carbon nanotubes drug delivery system opens up new potential and possibilities over nanoparticles, dendrimers, liposomes etc. for biomedical applications and new drug delivery. In last few years, Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have shown unexpected advantages in the field of cancer treatment and drug delivery systems. Present review article discuss in brief about the methods of synthesis, with purification as well as sorting techniques for giving different grades to different types of CNTs and biomedical applications. These show very good adsorption properties which helps in the detection of various chemicals, toxic agents etc. Research done using CNTs for cancer treatment is also discussed in brief.  


2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 262 ◽  
Author(s):  
B Dineshkumar ◽  
K Krishnakumar ◽  
AR Bhatt ◽  
D Paul ◽  
J Cherian ◽  
...  

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