The Advances of Carbon Nanotubes in Cancer Diagnostics and Therapeutics

Table 1

Summary of reviewed functionalization chemistries [57].

Types of association	Advantages	Disadvantages	Molecules attached	Potential applications
Noncovalent attachment	Higher loading than covalent approaches	Weaker binding and higher leaching than covalent approaches	Paclitaxel	In vivo drug delivery for cancer therapeutics
	Chemistry of attached molecule is unaltered	Limited to molecules with affinity for nanotube surface	DNA	Detection of protein-protein interactions
			Doxorubicin	In vivo drug delivery for cancer therapeutics
			M13 phage	Tumor detection
Covalent attachment	Exhibits stronger/longer term binding	Loading is limited to the number of available functional sites on nanotube surface	Lysostaphin	Antimicrobial nanocomposite films
	Works for molecules which do not have a high affinity for the nanotube surface	Alters structure of molecule attached which might prove detrimental for the desired application	AcT (perhydrolase)	Glycoprotein detection
			Protoporphyrin IX
			RNA aptamer
			Drug loaded liposomes	In vivo drug delivery for cancer therapeutics