Biologically active water-soluble fullerene adducts: Das Glasperlenspiel (by H. Hesse)?

The review discusses prospects for the use of fullerenes and their various functionalised adducts: polyhydroxylated fullerenes (fullerenols), carboxylated fullerenes, adducts with amino acids, peptides and proteins, amino adducts, glycofullerenes (“sugar balls”), adducts of fullerenes with porphyrins, as well as endometallofullerenes. The review article will be useful for specialists working in the field of nanomedicine and nanoengineering. [Display omitted] •Possibilities of fullerene derivatives application in various fields of nanobiomedicine are discussed.•The knowledge of the most promising water-soluble fullerene adducts with various functional groups is systemised.•Computational approaches for study of systems containing fullerene adducts are presented.