title: Carbon nanotubes: applications in pharmacy and medicine.
abstract: Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are allotropes of carbon, made of graphite and constructed in cylindrical tubes with nanometer in diameter and several millimeters in length. Their impressive structural, mechanical, and electronic properties are due to their small size and mass, their strong mechanical potency, and their high electrical and thermal conductivity. CNTs have been successfully applied in pharmacy and medicine due to their high surface area that is capable of adsorbing or conjugating with a wide variety of therapeutic and diagnostic agents (drugs, genes, vaccines, antibodies, biosensors, etc.). They have been first proven to be an excellent vehicle for drug delivery directly into cells without metabolism by the body. Then other applications of CNTs have been extensively performed not only for drug and gene therapies but also for tissue regeneration, biosensor diagnosis, enantiomer separation of chiral drugs, extraction and analysis of drugs and pollutants. Moreover, CNTs have been recently revealed as a promising antioxidant. This minireview focuses the applications of CNTs in all fields of pharmacy and medicine from therapeutics to analysis and diagnosis as cited above. It also examines the pharmacokinetics, metabolism and toxicity of different forms of CNTs and discusses the perspectives, the advantages and the obstacles of this promising bionanotechnology in the future.
authors.affiliation: China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China ; Key Laboratory of Drug Quality Control and Pharmacovigilance, Ministry of Education, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Lien Ai
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Pham-Huy
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dramou
authors.forename: Deli
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Pengli
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zuo
authors.forename: Chuong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pham-Huy
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry*; D015374:Biosensing Techniques; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010599:Pharmacokinetics
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon