Carbon Nanomaterials for Drug Delivery and Cancer Therapy

Nanotechnology is one of the most exciting disciplines and it incorporates physics, chemistry, materials science, and biology. It can be applied to design cancer medicines with improved therapeutic indices. At the basic level, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene are sp(2) carbon nanomaterials. Their unique physical and chemical properties make them interesting candidates of research in a wide range of areas including biological systems and different diseases. Recent research has been focused on exploring the potential of the CNTs as a carrier or vehicle for intracellular transport of drugs, proteins, and targeted genes in vitro and in vivo. Several research groups are actively involved to find out a functional CNT carrier capable of transporting targeted drug molecules in animal models with least toxicity. Current investigations are also focused on graphene, an allotrope of carbon, which appears to be a promising agent for successful delivery of biomolecules in various animal models. But potential clinical implementations of CNTs are still hampered by distinctive barriers such as poor bioavailability and intrinsic toxicity, which pose difficulties in tumor targeting and penetration as well as in improving therapeutic outcome. This article presents recent progresses in the design and evaluation of closely related CNTs for experimental cancer therapy and explores their implications in bringing nanomedicines into the clinics.