Carbon Nanotube-Based Delivery Vectors for Cancer Therapy

A special issue of Pharmaceutics (ISSN 1999-4923). This special issue belongs to the section "Nanomedicine and Nanotechnology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2021) | Viewed by 5247

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Nanomedicine, Drug Delivery & Nanotoxicology Lab, The School of Pharmacy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK
Interests: nanomedicine; drug delivery; nanotoxicology; carbon-based nanomaterials; nanoparticles
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Dear Colleagues,

Cancer is a major public health problem, as it is the second leading cause of death globally. Although existing therapeutic modalities have shown great promise in cancer therapy, we are still far from the ideal cure that will not only improve patient life expectancy dramatically but also totally cure the body from its malignancy. While current therapies suffer from the issue of relapse after treatment, which could be due to drug resistance and poor drug uptake into the tumour, especially in the case of chemotherapeutics; cancer patients are still suffering from drastic side-effects post-treatment which are affecting their quality of life. In order to overcome these problems, the field of cancer drug delivery has evolved in recent years especially with the development of nano-sized drug delivery systems such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs). CNTs are graphene sheets rolled up into a tubular structure. Functionalised CNTs have shown an extraordinary and yet different cellular uptake fashion through what is known as the “Nanoneedle Hypothesis”, an energy-independent uptake mechanism. This meant that CNTs could improve the poor cellular uptake of chemotherapeutics as well as overcome drug resistance. Their unique cellular uptake mechanism could also be revolutionary in the delivery of therapeutic macromolecules, such as protein and nucleic acid, as they would avoid the endosome–lysosome compartment. In addition, their large surface area offers an enormous platform for the attachment of therapeutic and diagnostic molecules, and their unique thermal properties have shown great promise in hypothermia therapy.  

Therefore, the use of CNTs in cancer therapy is a promising new strategy that can revolutionize cancer treatment. For this reason, we are proposing this Special Issue on “Carbon Nanotube-Based Delivery Vectors for Cancer Therapy”, which will highlight current advances in cancer drug delivery using carbon nanotubes and provide an overview of their potential in the delivery of cancer therapeutics ranging from small molecules to macromolecules but also their uniqueness in photothermal therapy. We invite articles on all aspects of CNT cancer therapy as briefly outlined in the Special Issue’s scope.

Dr. Hanene Ali-Boucetta
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Carbon nanotubes for the delivery of small chemotherapeutics
  • Carbon nanotubes for the delivery of macromolecules for cancer therapy (excluding gene therapy)
  • Cancer gene therapy using carbon nanotubes
  • The use of carbon nanotubes in hyperthermia treatment/photothermal therapy
  • Cancer immunotherapy: What can carbon nanotubes offer?
  • Cancer targeting using CNTs
  • CNT potential in radiotherapy

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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21 pages, 2705 KiB  
Review
Single-Walled Carbon Nanohorns as Promising Nanotube-Derived Delivery Systems to Treat Cancer
by Alazne Moreno-Lanceta, Mireia Medrano-Bosch and Pedro Melgar-Lesmes
Pharmaceutics 2020, 12(9), 850; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics12090850 - 7 Sep 2020
Cited by 39 | Viewed by 4324
Abstract
Cancer has become one of the most prevalent diseases worldwide, with increasing incidence in recent years. Current pharmacological strategies are not tissue-specific therapies, which hampers their efficacy and results in toxicity in healthy organs. Carbon-based nanomaterials have emerged as promising nanoplatforms for the [...] Read more.
Cancer has become one of the most prevalent diseases worldwide, with increasing incidence in recent years. Current pharmacological strategies are not tissue-specific therapies, which hampers their efficacy and results in toxicity in healthy organs. Carbon-based nanomaterials have emerged as promising nanoplatforms for the development of targeted delivery systems to treat diseased cells. Single-walled carbon nanohorns (SWCNH) are graphene-based horn-shaped nanostructure aggregates with a multitude of versatile features to be considered as suitable nanosystems for targeted drug delivery. They can be easily synthetized and functionalized to acquire the desired physicochemical characteristics, and no toxicological effects have been reported in vivo followed by their administration. This review focuses on the use of SWCNH as drug delivery systems for cancer therapy. Their main applications include their capacity to act as anticancer agents, their use as drug delivery systems for chemotherapeutics, photothermal and photodynamic therapy, gene therapy, and immunosensing. The structure, synthesis, and covalent and non-covalent functionalization of these nanoparticles is also discussed. Although SWCNH are in early preclinical research yet, these nanotube-derived nanostructures demonstrate an interesting versatility pointing them out as promising forthcoming drug delivery systems to target and treat cancer cells. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Carbon Nanotube-Based Delivery Vectors for Cancer Therapy)
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