title: Impact of carbon nanotubes and graphene on immune cells.
abstract: It has been recently proposed that nanomaterials, alone or in concert with their specific biomolecular conjugates, can be used to directly modulate the immune system, therefore offering a new tool for the enhancement of immune-based therapies against infectious disease and cancer. Here, we revised the publications on the impact of functionalized carbon nanotubes (f-CNTs), graphene and carbon nanohorns on immune cells. Whereas f-CNTs are the nanomaterial most widely investigated, we noticed a progressive increase of studies focusing on graphene in the last couple of years. The majority of the works (56%) have been carried out on macrophages, following by lymphocytes (30% of the studies). In the case of lymphocytes, T cells were the most investigated (22%) followed by monocytes and dendritic cells (7%), mixed cell populations (peripheral blood mononuclear cells, 6%), and B and natural killer (NK) cells (1%). Most of the studies focused on toxicity and biocompatibility, while mechanistic insights on the effect of carbon nanotubes on immune cells are generally lacking. Only very recently high-throughput gene-expression analyses have shed new lights on unrecognized effects of carbon nanomaterials on the immune system. These investigations have demonstrated that some f-CNTs can directly elicitate specific inflammatory pathways. The interaction of graphene with the immune system is still at a very early stage of investigation. This comprehensive state of the art on biocompatible f-CNTs and graphene on immune cells provides a useful compass to guide future researches on immunological applications of carbon nanomaterials in medicine.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Orecchioni
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bedognetti
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sgarrella
authors.forename: Francesco M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Marincola
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Chimica e Farmacia, Università degli Studi di Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy. a.bianco@ibmc-cnrs.unistra.fr.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bianco
authors.forename: Lucia Gemma
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Delogu
mesh_terms: D006108:Graphite; D006801:Humans; D008264:Macrophages / Q000276:immunology*; D009000:Monocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D006108:Graphite