In vivo Biodistribution and Highly Efficient Tumour Targeting of Carbon Nanotubes in Mice

Abstract

The fate and biological effects of carbon nanotubes in animals are critical to potential applications in vivo. Efficient targeting of integrin positive –tumour in mice is achieved with Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) coated with poly(ethylene glycol) chains linked to an arginine–glycine–aspartic acid peptide. A high tumour accumulation is attributed to the multivalent effect of the SWNTs. The Raman signatures of SWNTs are used to directly probe the presence of nanotubes in mice tissues and confirm the radio-label-based results. The high optical absorbance of SWNTs in the near-infrared regime causes heating under laser irradiation, which is useful for destroying cancer cells that are selectively internalized with nanotubes. The fact that much of the radioactivity remained in the mice at 24 h p.i. suggested relatively slow excretion of SWNTs, which differed from the previous finding where SWNTs acted as small molecules, with little RES uptake and free excretion from mice.