Magnetic Carbon Nanotubes as a Theranostic Platform for Drug Delivery and Magnetic Resonance Imaging

  • Nedah Alkattan

Student thesis: Master's Thesis

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have special characteristics that made them good agents especially for biomedical applications. In this study, Fe3O4 nanoparticles were incorporated onto the surface of CNTs followed by polyethylene glycol (PEG) grafting forming CNTs-Fe3O4-PEG hybrids. The PEGylation improves their biocompatibility, water solubility, and increases blood circulation. CNTs-Fe3O4-PEG was used as T2-contrat agent for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In addition, doxorubicin (DOX) was loaded onto CNTs-Fe3O4-PEG. The release of DOX from DOX-loaded CNTs-Fe3O4-PEG was tested under different pH conditions (7.4, 6.3 and 5.2). The release increased at acidic pH compared to neutral pH, which shows the sensitivity of the system to pH change. Triggering the release by Near Infra-Red (NIR) irradiation was furthermore investigated. The release increased after irradiation with NIR compared to control sample. These result prove that the designed system can be triggered by an internal stimuli (pH) and external stimuli (NIR irradiation) making it a promising candidate to be used for biomedical applications.
Date of AwardJun 2014
Original languageEnglish (US)
Awarding Institution
  • Physical Sciences and Engineering
SupervisorNiveen Khashab (Supervisor)

Keywords

  • Carbon nanotubes
  • magnetic Particles
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Drug Delivery
  • Near-infrared (NIR)

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