Carbon nanotubes: properties, synthesis, purification, and medical applications

Table 6 Example of drugs and nucleic acids which were delivered by carbon nanotubes

Drug/nucleic acid	CNT type	Cell or tissue	Properties	Reference
Taxoid	SWNTs	Leukemia	High potency toward specific cancer cell lines	[116]
Doxorubicin	SWNTs	Colon cancer	Efficiently taken up by cancer cells, then translocates to the nucleus while the nanotubes remain in the cytoplasm	[113, 114]
Cisplatin	SWNTs	Squamous carcinoma	Rapid regression of tumor growth	[117]
Cisplatin	SWNTs	Nasopharyngeal epidermoid carcinoma, etc.	High and specific binding to the folate receptor (FR) for the SWNT-1 conjugate	[118]
Doxorubicin	SWNTs	Breast cancer Glioblastoma	Show that large surface areas on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs)	[119]
Doxorubicin	SWNTs	Cervical carcinoma	Increase nuclear DNA damage and inhibit the cell proliferation	[115]
Radionuclide	SWNTs	Burkitt lymphoma	The selective targeting of tumor in vitro and in vivo	[120]
Paclitaxel	SWNTs	Breast cancer	High treatment efficacy, minimum side effects	[121]
siRNA	SWNTs	Tumor cells both in vitro and in vivo mouse models	Increase suppression of tumor growth	[122]
Toxic siRNA sequence (siTOX)	Functionalized MWNTs	Human lung xenograft model	Significant tumor growth inhibition	[123]
siRNA	SWNT	Human neuroblastoma	Enhance the efficiency of siRNA-mediated gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRP-R) gene silencing	[124]
SOCS1 siRNA	sWNT	Dendritic cells (DCs)	Reduced SOCS1 expression and retarded the growth of established B16 tumor in mice	[125]