Drug delivery with carbon nanotubes for in vivo cancer treatment

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes can effectively deliver chemotherapy drugs in vivo, leading to improved tumor suppression with minimal toxicity in mice.

Contribution

It introduces a novel SWNT-based drug delivery system conjugated with paclitaxel, showing enhanced tumor targeting and efficacy over traditional chemotherapy.

Findings

SWNT-PTX shows higher tumor suppression than Taxol.

Prolonged blood circulation increases drug delivery efficiency.

Minimal toxicity observed in normal organs.

Abstract

Chemically functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have shown promise in tumor targeted accumulation in mice and exhibit biocompatibility, excretion and little toxicity. Here, we demonstrate in-vivo SWNT drug delivery for tumor suppression in mice. We conjugate paclitaxel (PTX), a widely used cancer chemotherapy drug to branched polyethylene-glycol (PEG) chains on SWNTs via a cleavable ester bond to obtain a water soluble SWNT-paclitaxel conjugate (SWNT-PTX). SWNT-PTX affords higher efficacy in suppressing tumor growth than clinical Taxol in a murine 4T1 breast-cancer model, owing to prolonged blood circulation and 10-fold higher tumor PTX uptake by SWNT delivery likely through enhanced permeability and retention (EPR). Drug molecules carried into the reticuloendothelial system are released from SWNTs and excreted via biliary pathway without causing obvious toxic effects to normal organs. Thus, nanotube drug delivery is promising for high treatment efficacy and minimum side effects for future cancer therapy with low drug doses.