Targeting of Therapeutic Molecules to Cells using Carbon Nanotubes – A Novel Therapy to Cancer and Other Diseases

Nanomaterials have gained huge importance in a wide range of industries and also in the medicinal field. They are materials having average grain size less than 100nm and include nanoparticulate ceramics, metals, semiconductors, fullerenes coatings, dispersions and Nanotubes. A major class of Nanomaterials is the Carbon Nanotubes (CNT). CNT consists exclusively of carbon atoms, from family of fullerenes, the third allotrope of carbon. CNT possess properties like high electrical and thermal conductivity, great strength, rigidity. However CNT are completely insoluble in organic solvents and for any biological applications aqueous solubilization is required. This is done by converting CNT into biologically compatible materials. Covalent functionalization of these Nanotubes facilitates their use in nanomedicine field. Moreover, incorporating these CNT into cells and biomolecules has a wide range of uses in pharmacology. Hence by making the CNT water soluble by covalent functionalization and then linking the peptides or complex gene coding nucleic acids onto its surface it can be made active. This can be used as the base for directing therapeutic molecules to specific targets. The possible applications are cytotoxicity analysis, tissue engineering, and biosensors, functionalized CNT for gene delivery, peptide delivery and interaction with mammalian cells. As a recent development, CNTs have been used as vehicles for drug and antigen delivery, serving as a novel strategy for immunization against several infectious diseases and cancer.