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Multifunctional nano-sized fullerenes for advanced tumor therapy

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Abstract

There is an increasing demand for the development of functional photosensitizing nano-sized drugs. Fullerene, one of the new carbon molecules, has been considered to be a useful and versatile material for this purpose. Notably, fullerenes are water-insoluble, and they readily aggregate in aqueous solution. Therefore, fullerenes usually have been coupled with water-soluble, biocompatible, biodegradable polymers (e.g., polysaccharides, proteins, and other functional polymers), achieving their improved water-solubility and biocompatible properties. In particular, when fullerenes are paired with tumor-targeting ligands or stimuli-responsive polymers, these conjugates exhibit enhanced tumor recognition ability and improved tumor inhibition. Some groups encapsulated fullerenes into liposomes or nanoemulsions for various pharmaceutical purposes. This review provides an in-depth understanding of fullerene/polymer nanoparticles for effective fullerene-mediated tumor therapy.

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Acknowledgments

This article does not contain any studies with human and animal subjects performed by any of the authors. This work was supported by a grant (16173MFDS542) from Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in 2016, the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIP) (No. NRF-2015R1A4A1042350), by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2015R1D1A1A01056590), and by a grant from the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (Grant No. HI14C1835).

Conflict of Interest

Y. S. Youn, D. S. Kwag and E. S. Lee declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Pharmacy, Sungkyunkwan University, 300 Chonchon-dong, Jangan-ku, Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, 440-746, Republic of Korea

    Yu Seok Youn

  2. Department of Biotechnology, The Catholic University of Korea, 43-1 Yeokgok 2-dong, Wonmi-gu, Bucheon, Gyeonggi-do, 420-743, Republic of Korea

    Dong Sup Kwag & Eun Seong Lee

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  1. Yu Seok Youn
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  2. Dong Sup Kwag
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Correspondence to Eun Seong Lee.

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Youn, Y.S., Kwag, D.S. & Lee, E.S. Multifunctional nano-sized fullerenes for advanced tumor therapy. Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation 47, 1–10 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40005-016-0282-8

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