Targeted Delivery of Carbon Nanotubes to Cancer Cells

The current antitumor strategies, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, naked and/or conjugated monoclonal antibody (MAb) therapy or combinations of these have major limitations ranging from insufficient cytotoxicity to severe side effects. A potential solution is the use of targeted nanoparticles such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs). CNTs have been demonstrated to possess unique properties including the ability to emit heat when exposed to either near-infrared (NIR) light. The proposal test the possibility to use targeted CNTs to selectively ablate tumors by the local heat generated by cell-bound CNTs under NIR light exposure. The present study describes the preparation of conjugates with MAbs indirectly or directly coupled to CNTs and the characterization of the chemical and biological properties of the resulting MAb-CNT conjugates. We, thus, prepared MAb-CNT conjugates with stable chemical structure. The CNTs preserved the key spectral properties, are not toxic and are stable in physiological buffers. They show a high tumor cell specificity and selective thermal depletion of tumor cells in cultures or in mouse models. This study will test the hypothesis that chemically stable nanoparticles, such as CNTs, might represent an alternative strategy to the current antitumor agents and provide a proof-of-principle for the therapy of at least a number of skin tumors. The original document contains color images.