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Due to their structure and potential use in various fields including medicine, fullerenes have emerged as one of the most pursued areas of study in nanotechnology for scholars. Fullerenes or buckytubes are carbon molecules that contain 60 or more spherical hollow carbon cages including each of 60 or more firmly bonded atoms of C60. Since its first construction in 1985 many researchers have given a large portion of their efforts over the years to researching this form of carbon the fullerene family of structures from the engineering of related applications, healthcare, etc.
Fullerenes have attracted attention as one of the most important foci in the scientific researches, and this is the most important property of fullerenes – being antioxidants. Toward that end, due to the particular structural aspect of these novel compounds, fullerenes are able to inactivate free radicals more effectively – ‘Damaged’ molecules, which are thought to be one of the culprits of diseases and age-related problems. It was discovered that fullerenes are more efficient than the classical antioxidant vitamin E or C in scavenging free radicals and therefore, these substances could be effective in the increasing the resistance to oxidative stress and the risk of correlated pathologies such as cancer, neurodegeneration and cardiovascular diseases.
Fullerenes have also been studied and investigated as nanocarriers of various drug substances. The fact that fullerenes are hollow enables their ability to hold for transfer therapeutics as well as avails their protection from decomposition agents and allows the targeting of the therapeutics to specific sites in the body, enhancing therapeutic efficacy. This is useful because it minimizes unwanted effects and enhances the efficiency of the treatment. For example, fullerene-based drug delivery systems have been devised to deliver chemotherapeutic agents directly to malignant tumors while avoiding exposure of normal tissues to the cytotoxic agents.
Since fullerenes are advanced materials, they have also found applications in some anti-viral and anti-bacterial strategies. It is understood that fullerene may be capable of preventing some viruses from replicating, like the Hans infection in repetition by not permitting some viruses into the cells. There have also been studies that demonstrate the efficacy of fullerene compounds against bacteria that form drug-resistant strains to infection, and this addresses the problem of antibiotic drug resistance which is a public health threat worldwide.
Free radicals are agents of free radical damage and this has been a major contributing factor in neurodegenerative disease pathologies such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Fullerenes are strong free radical abrogators and therefore neuroprotective effects have been tested in animals and were confirmed. Studies have demonstrated that fullerenes as well as other molecules may lower oxidative stress and most importantly inflammation in nerve tissues. However, possessing such therapeutics will be the important scope of further developments.
Fulfilleries has succeeded also not only in treating diseases but also in the petals of skin care. In particular, as these fullerenes are able to act as antioxidants, they are now added to such cosmetic products that have a great market potential like the anti-wrinkle cream & suntan lotion, which in turn prevent the aging of skin tissues owing to external factors. To note, clinical studies have seen that product incorporating fullerene possesses anti-wrinkle properties through improvements in the elastic and moisture contents of skin, which benefits the cosmaceutical and dermatological markets.
A few health benefits associated with fullerene do appear to be somewhat promising and there has, however, also the reservation of the safety of the substances. Long-term toxicity has been documented for some forms of treatment especially concerning the surgical treatment of some of the forms of Cancer for several years, or for high doses of certain chemotherapy agents. Most of fullerene containing products have been found to be relatively safe and nontoxic and hence not harmful. But, revelation of unknown dangers regarding the concern of the safety of the product from its long-term or chronic use to human health or environment warrant further investigations.
Fullerenes are a novel field in the corpus of nanotechnology whose prominence will improve health in myriad ways. Since they contain high levels of antioxidant activity, fullerenes also have novel applications such as in drug delivery, skincare, and neural protection, and therefore, have great potential to revolutionize medicine in a positive way.