Examining the Potential of Buckyballs as Drug-Delivery Devices

Originally Published MDDI May 2002

R&D DIGEST

The application of buckminsterfullerene forms, including carbon nanotubes and buckyballs, to medical practices has been explored for a good number of years, and many researchers have considered their potential use in drug delivery. Now, a graduate student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Blacksburg, VA) has developed the first organic derivative of a metallofullerene, a metal-filled buckyball. The student, Erick B. Iezzi, has also developed a process for making such structures soluble, which he believes could make them useful for such biological applications as delivering medicine or radioactive material to a disease site.

A collaborator of Iezzi, Harry Dorn, PhD, professor of chemistry at the university, developed a method for creating metallofullerenes, which are being developed as improved MRI reagents and for a number of nonmedical applications. Iezzi, however, has focused on the concept of using the 60- to 80-atom hollow carbon molecules for drug delivery, adding biological functionality to a buckyball.

Specifically, Iezzi has attached a chemical group known as 13C labeled 6,7-dimethoxyisochroman-3-one to an 80-atom fullerene containing three scandium atoms anchored by a nitrogen atom. Iezzi describes the method he used to attach an isochromanone derivative to a buckyball as follows, "You heat the isochromanone until it loses carbon dioxide and attaches to the fullerene." Commenting further, he explains, "These molecules are so novel that no one knew how they would react or where we would attach other molecules."

According to Iezzi, by attaching water-soluble groups such as peptides or hydrophilic chains, "we can get these molecules into the blood stream." Dorn adds that accomplishing that "is a first step in making drugs."

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