Rational design of amphiphilic polymers to make carbon nanotubes water-dispersible, anti-biofouling, and functionalizable

摘要

We report rational design of amphiphilic polymers capable of making carbon nanotubes (CNTs) highly water dispersible and resistant to biofouling; such CNTs can be conjugated with bioactive molecules so as to be potential drug delivery vehicles.rnAlthough carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have demonstrated potential as novel electronic or composite materials, their use in biomedical applications such as drug delivery vehicles and scaffolds for tissue engineering has drawn increasing attention in the past few years. Several recent reports have shown that CNTs are able to assist in the killing of cancer cells upon irradiation because of the near IR absorption property of CNTs, and that CNTs can also deliver therapeutic agents such as plasmid DNA, siRNA, or anticancer drugs to cells, in a specific manner. When such in vitro data are translated to in vivo systems (CNTs as drug delivery vehicles), several special considerations arise. First, CNTs must be well-dispersed in plasma for a reasonable period without aggregation which otherwise might cause severe embolization in vivo by blocking of capillary vessels.