Biomedical application of fullerenes

Abstract

Fullerene, the third carbon allotrope, is a classical engineered material with the potential application in biomedicine. Since their discovery in 1985, fullerenes have been extensively investigated. The biological activities of fullerenes are considerably influenced by their chemical modifications and light treatment. The most relevant feature of fullerene C60is the ability to act as a free radical scavenges. Properties attributed to the delocalized p double bond system of fullerene cage allow C60to quench various free radicals more efficiently than conventional antioxidants. However, extremely high hydrophobicity of fullerene hampers its direct biomedical evaluation and application. To overcome this problem, several approaches for the transfer fullerenes into physiological friendly media have been developed: chemical modification of the fullerene carbon cage, incorporation of fullerenes into water soluble micellar supramolecular structures, solvent exchange and long term stirring of pure C60in water. These steps created army of different classes of functionalized fullerenes which exhibit vast range of biological activities, especially in the field of photodynamic therapy, neuroprotection, apoptosis, drug and gene delivery. It was found that certain classes of functionalized fullerenes can be used for diagnostic purposes. So far, the most promising applications include the use of gadolinium endohedral complexes in magnetic resonance imaging and therpautic (as a primary or adjuvant) exploration of tris-adducts and polyhidroxlated C60fullerenes. In this chapter we are summarizing and discussing main biological and medicinal aspects of fullerenes and its functionalized derivates with special regards to the recent achievements. © 2012 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.