Biomedical potential of the reactive oxygen species generation and quenching by fullerenes (C60 )

• Published in: Biomaterials 2008-09, Vol.29 (26), p.3561-3573
• Main Authors: Markovic, Zoran, Trajkovic, Vladimir
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Advanced Basic Science; Animals; Antioxidant; Carbon; Cytoprotection; Cytotoxicity; Dentistry; Free Radical Scavengers - chemistry; Free Radical Scavengers - metabolism; Fullerenes - chemistry; Fullerenes - metabolism; Fullerenes - therapeutic use; Humans; Molecular Structure; Nanoparticle; Reactive Oxygen Species - chemistry; Reactive Oxygen Species - metabolism; Reactive Oxygen Species - therapeutic use; Solvents - chemistry; Surface-Active Agents - chemistry; Water - chemistry
• ISSN: 0142-9612; 1878-5905
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2008.05.005

Abstract Fullerene (C60 ), a third carbon allotrope, is a classical engineered material with the potential application in biomedicine. One of the biologically most relevant features of C60 is the ability to quench various free radicals, behaving as a “free radical sponge”. Conversely, photosensitization of C60 leads to its transition to a long-lived triplet excited state and the subsequent energy or electron transfer to molecular oxygen, yielding highly reactive singlet oxygen (1 O2 ) or superoxide anion (O2 − ), respectively. These reactive oxygen species (ROS) react with a wide range of biological targets and are known to be involved in both cellular signaling and cell damage. Therefore, the dual property of fullerenes to either quench or generate cell-damaging ROS could be potentially exploited for their development as cytoprotective or cytotoxic anticancer/antimicrobial agents. However, the attempts to that effect have been hampered by the extremely low water solubility of C60 , and by the fact that solubilization procedures profoundly influence the ROS-generating/quenching properties of C60 , either through chemical modification or through formation of complex nanoscale particles with different photophysical properties. We here analyze the mechanisms and biological consequences of ROS generation/quenching by C60 , focusing on the influence that different physico-chemical alterations exert on its ROS-related biological behavior.