Optical Properties of Carbon Nanotubes: Near-Infrared Induced Hyperthermia as Therapy for Brain Tumors
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Optical Properties of Carbon Nanotubes: Near-Infrared Induced Hyperthermia as Therapy for Brain Tumors Lewis Gomez-De Arco1, Meng-Tse Chen2, Weijun Wang3, Thomas Vernier2,4, Paul Pagnini3, Thomas Chen3, Martin Gundersen5, and Chongwu Zhou5 1 Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, 3710 Mc Clintock Ave RTH B118, Los Angeles, CA, 90089 2 Department of Materials Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089 3 Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089 4 MOSIS: Information Science Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089 5 Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089 ABSTRACT In this work chemical functionalization of carbon nanotubes was conducted with the aim of improving their ability to be integrated into biological systems. Functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) demonstrated to be an excellent vehicle to translocate a highly conjugated organic fluorophore across the cell membrane while causing little toxicity to the cells. SWNTs were introduced into different lines of the primary brain tumor cells Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM). Once within the cell interior, the optical properties of the SWNTs were used for both fluorescent imaging characterization and selective near infrared (NIR) irradiation killing of tumor cells that had exhibited high SWNTs uptake levels. Propidium iodide (PI) was employed as an indicator to determine the number of cells with compromised plasma membrane. Cell surviving ratios of as little as 10-20 percent were found in samples with intracellular nanotubes exposed to NIR while a cell surviving ratio of about 95 percent was typical in irradiated samples without intracellular nanotubes. Control samples showed cell surviving ratios comparable to exposed samples without intracellular nanotubes. This study reveals new insights upon the influence of SWNTs optical properties in the physicochemical processes within cells and how they can be used to develop therapies for cancerous brain tumors.
INTRODUCTION Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is the most common and most aggressive of the primary brain tumors. It is notoriously successful at evading all types of therapy and the prognosis is poor, with the average individual surviving only 8 months after the tumor is identified [1]. The primary therapy for most solid tumors is surgical resection, followed by a combination of radiation and chemotherapy. However, GBM is characterized by a high invasive potential. It divides at a very rapid rate, displaying a wide diversity of histological features and preventing the success of conventional treatment [2,3]. It is obvious then that the next generation of therapeutic agents needs to be designed to target the discriminating destruction of cancerous cells but not of normal cells.
Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are nanosized objects made out of a network of aromatic hexagonal rings of carbon atoms. Their unique one dimensi
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