Inorganic hollow nanoparticles and nanotubes in nanomedicine: Part 1. Drug/gene delivery applications

doi:10.1016/j.drudis.2007.06.002

Drug Discovery Today

Volume 12, Issues 15–16, August 2007, Pages 650-656

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drudis.2007.06.002 Get rights and content

Recent cytotoxicity studies on carbon nanotubes have shown that the biocompatibility of nanomaterial might be determined mainly by surface functionalization, rather than by size, shape, and material. Although the cytotoxicity for individual inorganic hollow nanomaterials should be extensively tested in vitro and in vivo, potential safety concerns about the use of inorganic nanomaterials in biomedical applications could be alleviated with proper surface treatment. Inorganic hollow nanoparticles and nanotubes have attracted great interest in nanomedicine because of the generic transporting ability of porous material and a wide range of functionality that arises from their unique optical, electrical, and physical properties. In this review, we describe recent developments of hollow and porous inorganic nanomaterials in nanomedicine, especially for drug/gene delivery.

Section snippets

Carbon nanotube

Carbon nanotubes are the leading inorganic nanomaterial for biomedical application, and their toxicology and pharmacology were extensively reviewed by Kostarelos's group 7, 8. Although carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted increasing attention as new vectors for the delivery of therapeutic molecules, because of the easiness of translocation across cell membranes and low toxicity 9, 10, 11, 12, issues about the ultimate biocompatibility of CNTs have limited their widespread use in biomedical

Conclusion

In this article, we have reviewed hollow and porous inorganic nanomaterials in nanomedicine, focusing on the drug/gene delivery. The unique properties of a variety of inorganic materials such as mesoporous silica, quantum dot, CNT and gold nanoshell make it possible to enhance, or even surpass, the capabilities of conventional delivery. However, more research is needed before the hollow and porous inorganic nanomaterials are able to be used outside the laboratory. For controlled drug/gene

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Section snippets

Carbon nanotube

Conclusion

J. Control. Release

Toxicol. Lett.

Adv. Drug Deliv. Rev.

Cancer Lett.

J. Colloid Interf. Sci.

J. Control. Release

Int. J. Pharm.

J. Control. Release

Liposome-based drug delivery in breast cancer treatment

Breast Cancer Res.

Tissue biodistribution and blood clearance rates of intravenously administered carbon nanotube radiotracers

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A.

Cancer nanotechnology: opportunities and challenges

Nat. Rev. Cancer

Template synthesized nanotubes for biomedical delivery applications

Nanomedicine

Cellular uptake of functionalized carbon nanotubes is independent of functional group and cell type

Nat. Nanotechnol.

Biomedical applications of functionalized carbon nanotubes

Chem. Commun.

Can carbon nanotubes be considered useful tools for biological applications?

Adv. Mater.

Functionalized carbon nanotubes for plasmid DNA gene delivery

Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.

Structure-based carbon nanotube sorting by sequence-dependent DNA assembly

Science

Pulmonary toxicity of single-wall carbon nanotubes in mice 7 and 90 days after intratracheal instillation

Toxicol. Sci.

Oops they did it again! Carbon nanotubes hoax scientists in viability assays

Nano Lett.

Manufactured nanomaterials (fullerenes, C60) induce oxidative stress in the brain of juvenile largemouth bass

Environ. Health Perspect.

Organic functionalization of carbon nanotubes

J. Am. Chem. Soc.

Review
Post Screen
Inorganic hollow nanoparticles and nanotubes in nanomedicine: Part 1. Drug/gene delivery applications