title: Making carbon nanotubes biocompatible and biodegradable.
abstract: Carbon nanotubes are promising nanomaterials with great potential in the field of nanomedicine for both therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Different approaches have been developed to render this material biocompatible and to modulate any ensuing toxic effects. In the context of medical use, although chemically functionalised carbon nanotubes display reduced toxicity, they are still considered with scepticism due to their perceived non-biodegradability. Recently, it has been demonstrated that functionalised carbon nanotubes can be degraded by oxidative enzymes. This finding is offering a new perspective for the development of carbon nanotubes in medicine. This article highlights recent advances that can act as paradigm-shifts towards the design of biocompatible and biodegradable functionalised carbon nanotubes and allow their translation into the clinic.
authors.affiliation: CNRS, Institut de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Laboratoire d'Immunologie et Chimie Thérapeutiques, Strasbourg, 67000, France. a.bianco@ibmc-cnrs.unistra.fr
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bianco
authors.forename: Kostas
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kostarelos
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Prato
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D020099:Coated Materials, Biocompatible / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000633:toxicity; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon
chemical_list: D020099:Coated Materials, Biocompatible; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon