School of Pharmacy, Bharat Institute of Technology, Meerut, UP, India.
Crit Rev Ther Drug Carrier Syst. 2012;29(1):65-88. doi: 10.1615/critrevtherdrugcarriersyst.v29.i1.20.
In the field of nanotechnology, carbon nanotube (CNT) is gaining importance for the delivery of therapeutic agents and diagnosis of diseases. CNT is emerging as an efficient nanocarrier system with cylindrical nanostructure. Due to its nanoscale dimensions, CNTs have a high cell-penetration quality that allows its use in site-specific targeting. Another aspect of the utilization of CNT lies in its hollow structure through which an active moiety can be delivered in a controlled manner via CNTs' nano channels. Despite these positive aspects of CNT, scientists are still working to improve its biocompatibility and solubility and eliminating toxicity in vivo, which are creating problems with the use of CNTs. Therefore, functionalization becomes an important aspect to be studied because it decreases the toxicity of CNTs and make them nonimmunogenic. In this review, different functionalization techniques of CNTs and their biomedical applications-in particular for cancer therapy to date-are reviewed in detail to present the potential of this nanovector.
在纳米技术领域，碳纳米管（CNT）在治疗剂的输送和疾病诊断方面的重要性日益凸显。CNT 作为一种具有圆柱状纳米结构的高效纳米载体系统正在兴起。由于其纳米尺寸，CNTs 具有很高的细胞穿透质量，使其可用于特定部位的靶向。CNT 的另一个应用方面在于其空心结构，通过 CNT 的纳米通道可以以受控的方式输送活性部分。尽管 CNT 具有这些积极方面，但科学家们仍在努力提高其生物相容性和溶解性，并消除体内毒性，这给 CNT 的使用带来了问题。因此，功能化成为一个重要的研究方向，因为它降低了 CNT 的毒性，使它们不具有免疫原性。在这篇综述中，详细回顾了 CNT 的不同功能化技术及其生物医学应用，特别是迄今为止用于癌症治疗的应用，以展示这种纳米载体的潜力。
