ABSTRACT
Single-walled carbon nanotubes are currently under evaluation in biomedical applications, including in vivo delivery of drugs, proteins, peptides and nucleic acids (for gene transfer or gene silencing), in vivo tumour imaging and tumour targeting of single-walled carbon nanotubes as an anti-neoplastic treatment. However, concerns about the potential toxicity of single-walled carbon nanotubes have been raised. Here we examine the acute and chronic toxicity of functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes when injected into the bloodstream of mice. Survival, clinical and laboratory parameters reveal no evidence of toxicity over 4 months. Upon killing, careful necropsy and tissue histology show age-related changes only. Histology and Raman microscopic mapping demonstrate that functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes persisted within liver and spleen macrophages for 4 months without apparent toxicity. Although this is a preliminary study with a small group of animals, our results encourage further confirmation studies with larger groups of animals.
Subject(s)
Liver/drug effects , Liver/metabolism , Nanotubes, Carbon/adverse effects , Spleen/drug effects , Spleen/metabolism , Animals , Drug Evaluation, Preclinical , Liver/pathology , Mice , Pilot Projects , Risk Assessment , Spleen/pathologyABSTRACT
We show that large surface areas exist for supramolecular chemistry on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) prefunctionalized noncovalently or covalently by common surfactant or acid-oxidation routes. Water-soluble SWNTs with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) functionalization via these routes allow for surprisingly high degrees of pi-stacking of aromatic molecules, including a cancer drug (doxorubicin) with ultrahigh loading capacity, a widely used fluorescence molecule (fluorescein), and combinations of molecules. Binding of molecules to nanotubes and their release can be controlled by varying the pH. The strength of pi-stacking of aromatic molecules is dependent on nanotube diameter, leading to a method for controlling the release rate of molecules from SWNTs by using nanotube materials with suitable diameter. This work introduces the concept of "functionalization partitioning" of SWNTs, i.e., imparting multiple chemical species, such as PEG, drugs, and fluorescent tags, with different functionalities onto the surface of the same nanotube. Such chemical partitioning should open up new opportunities in chemical, biological, and medical applications of novel nanomaterials.
