Fullerenol: A new nanopharmaceutic?

Abstract

Chemical modification of fullerenes to hydrosoluble cluster molecules made fullerenes interesting for biological investigation. Among them, polycarbonated and polyhydroxylated fullerene C60 derivatives showed the most interesting biological activities. In this paper, we present the most important recent results of in vitro and in vivo biological studies with fullerenol C60(OH)24. Fullerenol C60(OH)24 was strong antioxidant: it reacted with superoxide anion radical, hydroxy radical and nitrous oxide radical in chemical and biological systems. Fullerenol C60(OH)24 did not inhibit human breast cancer cell growth at concentrations from 0.8 to 3.45 ?M, but strongly modulated cytotoxic effects of doxorubicin and cis-platinum after 24 and 48 hours of treatment. Radioprotective effects of fullerenol C60(OH)24 were shown in different in vitro and in vivo models. Fullerenol C60(OH)24 (100 mg/kg) protected rat heart from doxorubicin toxicity. Biodistribution studies of fulelrenol were also investigated. Accumulating data from the literature and from our studies suggest that fullerenol, as a nanoparticle might be a new promising pharmaceutical in the near future.