Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Mar 1:16:1681-1706.
doi: 10.2147/IJN.S299448. eCollection 2021.

Carbon Nanotubes: Smart Drug/Gene Delivery Carriers

Hossein Zare  1   2 , Sepideh Ahmadi  3   4 , Amir Ghasemi  5 , Mohammad Ghanbari  6 , Navid Rabiee  7 , Mojtaba Bagherzadeh  7 , Mahdi Karimi  8   9   10   11 , Thomas J Webster  12 , Michael R Hamblin  13 , Ebrahim Mostafavi  12   14   15
Affiliations
Review

Carbon Nanotubes: Smart Drug/Gene Delivery Carriers

Hossein Zare et al. Int J Nanomedicine. .

Erratum in

Abstract

The unique properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) (such as their high surface to volume ratios, enhanced conductivity and strength, biocompatibility, ease of functionalization, optical properties, etc.) have led to their consideration to serve as novel drug and gene delivery carriers. CNTs are effectively taken up by many different cell types through several mechanisms. CNTs have acted as carriers of anticancer molecules (including docetaxel (DTX), doxorubicin (DOX), methotrexate (MTX), paclitaxel (PTX), and gemcitabine (GEM)), anti-inflammatory drugs, osteogenic dexamethasone (DEX) steroids, etc. In addition, the unique optical properties of CNTs have led to their use in a number of platforms for improved photo-therapy. Further, the easy surface functionalization of CNTs has prompted their use to deliver different genes, such as plasmid DNA (PDNA), micro-RNA (miRNA), and small interfering RNA (siRNA) as gene delivery vectors for various diseases such as cancers. However, despite all of these promises, the most important continuous concerns raised by scientists reside in CNT nanotoxicology and the environmental effects of CNTs, mostly because of their non-biodegradable state. Despite a lack of widespread FDA approval, CNTs have been studied for decades and plenty of in vivo and in vitro reports have been published, which are reviewed here. Lastly, this review covers the future research necessary for the field of CNT medicine to grow even further.

Keywords: carbon nanotube; drug delivery; gene delivery; precision medicine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Michael R Hamblin reports personal fees from Vielight, outside the submitted work. The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
This scheme shows how DTX was conjugated to MWCNTs.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Schematic illustration of DOX-SPBB-siRNA nanocarriers for treating lung cancer cells.
Figure 3
Figure 3
In vivo biodistribution of fluorescent-labeled rCNT (A1 and A2) and fCNT (B1 and B2) in mice.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Rahim M, Rizvi SMD, Iram S, Khan S, Bagga PS, Khan MS. Chapter 5 - Interaction of green nanoparticles with cells and organs. In: Grumezescu AM, editor. Inorganic Frameworks as Smart Nanomedicines. William Andrew Publishing; 2018:185–237.
    1. Gao H, Jiang X. Chapter 1 - the medical applications of nanomaterials in the central nervous system. In: Jiang X, Gao H, editors. Neurotoxicity of Nanomaterials and Nanomedicine. Academic Press; 2017:1–31.
    1. Wei M, Li S, Le W. Nanomaterials modulate stem cell differentiation: biological interaction and underlying mechanisms. J Nanobiotechnology. 2017;15:75. doi: 10.1186/s12951-017-0310-5 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Higuchi M, Takagi H, Owada Y, et al. Efficacy and tolerability of nanoparticle albumin-bound paclitaxel in combination with carboplatin as a late-phase chemotherapy for recurrent and advanced non-small-cell lung cancer: a multi-center study of the Fukushima lung cancer association group of surgeons. Oncol Lett. 2017;13:4315+. doi: 10.3892/ol.2017.5998 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Karimi M, Zare H, Bakhshian Nik A, et al. Nanotechnology in diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery disease. Nanomedicine. 2016;11:513–530. doi: 10.2217/nnm.16.3 - DOI - PMC - PubMed