Curing the Toxicity of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes through Native Small-molecule Drugs

Abstract

With the development and application of nanotechnology, large amounts of nanoparticles will be potentially released to the environment and possibly cause many severe health problems. Although the toxicity of nanoparticles has been investigated, prevention and treatment of damages caused by nanoparticles have been rarely studied. Therefore, isotope tracing and improved CT imaging techniques were used to investigate the biodistribution influence between oMWCNTs(oxidized multi-walled carbon nanotubes) and 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC)/or simvastatin (TD) in vivo. What’s more, biochemical indices in plasma and tissue histology were measured to further study therapeutic effects on the damages of oMWCNTs in mice. Isotope tracing and improved CT imaging results showed that low dosages of DOPC and TD didn’t affect the distribution of oMWCNTs in mice; conversely, the distribution and metabolism of DOPC and TD were influenced by oMWCNTs. Moreover, DOPC and/or TD improved the biocompatibility of oMWCNTs in erythrocyte suspension in vitro. Biochemical index and histopathological results indicated that DOPC and TD didn’t prevent injuries caused by oMWCNTs effectively. But TD showed a good therapeutic effect for damages. This study is the first to investigate prevention and treatment effects of drugs on damages caused by oMWCNTs and provides new insights and breakthroughs for management of nanoparticles on health hazards.

Toxicity of Carbon Nanotubes: Molecular Mechanisms, Signaling Cascades, and Remedies in Biomedical Applications

“…It is worthwhile to mention that sidewall-functionalized SWCNTs are significantly less cytotoxic compared to surfactant-modified SWCNTs. An in vivo study conducted by Qi et al (2017) reported the toxicity of nanoparticles and explored the prevention as well as treatment of damages caused by nanoparticles. For this purpose, isotope tracing and better CT imaging procedures were applied to study the effect of biodistribution between simvastatin (TD) or 2-dioleoyl-snglycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) and oxidized MWCNTs.…”

The Advances in Biomedical Applications of Carbon Nanotubes

“…In fact, the toxicity of CNTs depends on many factors, including but not limited to, CNTs composition, surface morphology, concentration, the way of administration, interaction with chemical and physical components, and predisposition of the organism [160,161]. For example, Zhao et al studied the possible toxicity of multi-walled CNTs with three different diameters for human umbilical vein endothelial cells [162].…”

A review on carbon nanotubes in biosensor devices and their applications in medicine

“…For example, due to their high reactiveness and size, sometimes normal phagocytic defenses misses out to recognize CNTs, eventually giving access to the blood or the nervous system. CNTs also have an ability to alter the function of proteins by modifying the structure and raising the potential for auto-immune effects and this can presumably be avoided when functionalized covalently and noncovalently [142][143][144][145]. There are numerous intense research studies which proved that the CNTs and their composites based biomaterials are biocompatible.…”