CARBON NANOTUBES- THE HOLY GRAIL IN ANTICANCERTHERAPY

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes(CNT) are allotropes of carbon with cylindrical nanostructures. They can be visualized as a sheet of carbon atoms rolled up into a tube with a diameter of around tens of nanometers. They have electrical, optical, thermal,  mechanical properties. There are two types  of CNTs, single walled CNTs and multi walled CNTs. The multiwalled CNTs are formed by several concentric layers of rolled graphite. It has good adsorption properties which can detect some chemicals and biological agents. It is used to transport drug as well as proteins, DNA, RNA, into    cells. The carbon network of shell is considered to be a result of the arrangement of carbon atoms   in graphite sheets. Some properties of CNTs such as ease of cellular uptake, high drug loading, thermal ablation, among others, render them useful for cancer therapy. Cancer is one of the most challenging diseases of modern times because its therapy involves distinguishing normal healthy cells from affected cells. CNTs may prove to be the Holy Grail in cancer therapy because phenomena such as EPR, allow CNTs to distinguish normal cells from affected ones,. Considerable work has been done on CNTs as drug delivery systems over the last two decades. However, concerns over certain issues such as biocompatibility and toxicity have been raised and warrant extensive research in this field.