Nanobiotechnology Laboratory, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, and Biotechnology, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, People's Republic of China.
Biomacromolecules. 2009 Jul 13;10(7):1744-50. doi: 10.1021/bm9001624. Epub 2009 May 21.
Carbon nanotubes hold great promise for their use as a platform in nanomedicine, especially in drug delivery, medical imaging, and cancer targeting and therapeutics. Herein, we present a facile approach to modifying carbon nanotubes with multifunctional poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers for cancer cell targeting and imaging. In this approach, fluorescein isothiocyanate (FI)- and folic acid (FA)-modified amine-terminated generation 5 (G5) PAMAM dendrimers (G5·NH(2)-FI-FA) were covalently linked to acid-treated multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), followed by acetylation of the remaining primary amine groups of the dendrimers. The resulting MWCNT/G5.NHAc-FI-FA composites are water-dispersible, stable, and biocompatible. In vitro flow cytometry and confocal microscopy data show that the formed MWCNT/G5·NHAc-FI-FA composites can specifically target to cancer cells overexpressing high-affinity folic acid receptors. The results of this study suggest that, through modification with multifunctional dendrimers, complex carbon nanotube-based materials can be fabricated, thereby providing many possibilities for various applications in biomedical sensing, diagnosis, and therapeutics.
碳纳米管在纳米医学中作为平台具有很大的应用潜力，特别是在药物输送、医学成像以及癌症靶向和治疗方面。在此，我们提出了一种简便的方法，即用多功能聚酰胺-胺（PAMAM）树枝状聚合物对碳纳米管进行修饰，以实现对癌细胞的靶向和成像。在此方法中，荧光素异硫氰酸酯（FI）和叶酸（FA）修饰的胺端基第五代（G5）PAMAM 树枝状聚合物（G5·NH 2 -FI-FA）通过共价键连接到经酸处理的多壁碳纳米管（MWCNTs）上，然后对树枝状聚合物上的剩余伯胺基团进行乙酰化。得到的 MWCNT/G5·NHAc-FI-FA 复合材料在水中具有良好的分散性、稳定性和生物相容性。体外流式细胞术和共聚焦显微镜数据表明，形成的 MWCNT/G5·NHAc-FI-FA 复合材料可以特异性地靶向高亲和力叶酸受体过表达的癌细胞。本研究结果表明，通过多功能树枝状聚合物的修饰，可以制备复杂的基于碳纳米管的材料，从而为生物医学传感、诊断和治疗中的各种应用提供了多种可能性。
