Chinese medicine single-walled carbon nanotube targeting compound for antitumor therapy: a feasible way?

Malignant cancer is the leading cause of death in man, exceeding cerebrovascular disease and heart disease. More than half of the total mortality due to malignant cancer is from lung, liver, intestinal and gastric cancer. Chemotherapy is one of the effective treatments for cancer. However, the great majority of Western anticancer medicines have considerable side effects. Herbal medicines offer many more advantages than synthesized compounds because they are made from purely natural compounds and have less adverse effects. However, the single administration methods used as standard in herbal medicine, and deficient drug targeting, severely limit their anticancer activity. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) can be used as drug carriers. They have been modified to form Chinese anticancer medicine-SWNT compounds which can specifically target tumors, thereby significantly increasing the therapeutic effectiveness of these medicines. Water-soluble SWNTs have high stability. As a drug carrier, SWNTs functional modification of the anticancer medicine may improve the targeting and killing of tumor cells. SWNTs have been attached to the Chinese antitumor medicines paclitaxel and plumbagin and have achieved excellent therapeutic effects. Furthermore, choosing the best administration methods such as internal iliac arterial infusion, intravesical infusion and embedment of a hypodermic chemotherapeutic pump, may also improve the anticancer effects of Chinese medicine.