Single walled carbon nanotubes for transport and delivery of biological cargos

Abstract

The innate ability of carbon nanotubes to breach the cell membrane of various types of mammalian cells has been reported. Here, we present a summary of the various applications of carbon nanotubes as a cellular transport and delivery system for functional biological cargos. The internalization of SWNTs for transport and delivery into cells is mediated via endocytosis and does not appear to have any detrimental effect on either the transported cargo or the breached cell. The emergence of SWNT as a new class of cellular transporters holds many exciting promises for SWNT-based systems for drug delivery, protein delivery, gene therapy and cancer therapy applications. © 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.