St. John's Institute of Dermatology, King's College London , London SE1 9RT, United Kingdom.
NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London, Guy's Hospital , London SE1 9RT, United Kingdom.
ACS Nano. 2017 Nov 28;11(11):10637-10643. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.7b06701. Epub 2017 Oct 31.
Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have become potential candidates for a wide range of medical applications including sensing, imaging, and drug delivery. Their photophysical properties (i.e., the capacity to emit in the near-infrared), excellent photostability, and fluorescence, which is highly sensitive to the local environment, make SWCNTs promising optical probes in biomedicine. In this Perspective, we discuss the existing strategies for and challenges of using carbon nanotubes for medical diagnosis based on intracellular sensing as well as discuss also their biocompatibility and degradability. Finally, we highlight the potential improvements of this nanotechnology and future directions in the field of carbon nanotubes for biomedical applications.
单壁碳纳米管（SWCNTs）已成为广泛的医学应用的潜在候选者，包括传感、成像和药物输送。它们的光物理性质（即在近红外区域发光的能力）、出色的光稳定性和对局部环境高度敏感的荧光，使 SWCNTs 成为生物医学中很有前途的光学探针。在本观点中，我们讨论了基于细胞内传感的使用碳纳米管进行医学诊断的现有策略和挑战，并讨论了它们的生物相容性和可降解性。最后，我们强调了这种纳米技术的潜在改进和碳纳米管在生物医学应用领域的未来方向。
